After Sunset

Object Details

• Artist

  Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938)

• Label

  During the early 1890s Dewing painted a series of landscapes with figures which he referred to as "decorations." After Sunset's two evening-gowned women in a twilight setting are rendered in soft fresco-like tones of green, mauve, and white. While the figures are precise and somewhat linear in execution, the landscape itself is freely painted and the canvas coarsely woven. The artist's subject matter always remained ambiguous, never attempting to convey a message or tell a story. Dewing thought that the public failed to understand these landscape "decorations" as they did his interior scenes with figures. He wrote to Freer, "My decorations belong to the poetic and imaginative world where a few choice spirits live." (Thomas Wilmer Dewing to Charles Lang Freer, February 16, 1901, Freer Gallery of Art Archives.) Not only was the artist trying to establish a mood in his paintings, but the very ambiguity of the mood demanded viewer participation--and an appreciation of beauty for its own sake.

• Provenance

  From 1892 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Thomas Wilmer Dewing on December 27, 1892 [1]

  From 1920

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [2]

  Notes:

  [1] Object file.

  [2] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Dewing’s Poetic World (November 27, 2019 to May 29, 2022)

  Sylvan Sounds: Freer, Dewing, and Japan (May 18, 2013 to January 4, 2015)

  Surface Beauty: American Art and Freer's Aesthetic Vision (February 23, 2008 to August 1, 2010)

  Pretty Women: Freer and the Ideal of Feminine Beauty (August 13, 2005 to September 17, 2006)

  Art for Art's Sake (July 23, 1997 to January 24, 2008)

  Choice Spirits: Works by Thomas Dewing and Dwight Tryon (March 9, 1996 to July 7, 1997)

  American Art - Thomas Wilmer Dewing (May 9, 1993 to February 20, 1996)

  Thomas Wilmer Dewing (January 3, 1985 to May 7, 1985)

  American Painting: To Dream of Fair Women (September 24, 1982 to February 29, 1984)

  Thomas Wilmer Dewing (June 19, 1980 to March 18, 1981)

  American Paintings: Thomas Wilmer Dewing (December 11, 1976 to April 16, 1977)

  Centennial Exhibition, Galleries 8 and 9 (February 25, 1956 to April 28, 1958)

  Special Dewing Centennial Exhibition (May 17, 1951 to July 1, 1951)

  American Paintings, T.W. Dewing (May 2, 1923 to March 23, 1925)

  Loan Collection of Paintings by Mr. T.W. Dewing (February 27 to March 20, 1900)

  An Exhibition of Paintings by T.W. Dewing (January 24, 1898 to February 10, 1898)

  Untitled Exhibition, Salon de Champ de Mars, 1895 (1895)

  World's Columbian Exposition (May 1 to October 30, 1893)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938) (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  United States

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1890s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Dewing, Thomas Wilmer

• Place

  United States

• Topic

  Charles Lang Freer collection, Art, Night, American Art

• Culture

  Americans

• Object Type

  Paintings