Women in the 19C United States of America: The Gilded Cage & American Tonalist Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938)

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

The Gilded Cage & American Tonalist Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938)

Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851–1938) The Spinet

Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851–1938) Lady in Black and Rose

Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851–1938) Portrait in a Brown Dress

Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851–1938) Pandora

Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851–1938)

Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851–1938) The Carnation 1893

Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851–1938) Lady in Green

Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851–1938) was an American Tonalist painter born in Newton Lower Falls, Massachusetts. He studied at the Académie Julian in Paris, and later settled into a studio in New York City. Dewing painted thin, wide-boned females, usually alone, engaged in impassive actions & situated in gauzy, dreamy, confined interiors, much like a gilded cage. These women seem culturally confined, they remain remote & certainly emotionally distant from the viewer, but reportedly, not from the artist. Apparently Dewing's bachelor patron, railroad baron Charles Lang Freer (whose collection formed the 1923 Freer Gallery in Washington DC), actively enabled Dewing's relationships with his models & helped conceal them from Dewing's wife. Dewing's scenes are infused with subtle color harmonies that pervade the entire painting, setting tone & mood. These women seem like captives of the Victorian age, both culturally & sexually, & they make me somewhat uncomfortable. These are some of Dewings' women as objects.

Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938) The Piano 1891

Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938) The Palm Leaf Fan

Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938) Lady in White No 1

Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938) Lady in Blue Portrait of Annie Lazarus

Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938) Young Girl Seated 1896

Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938) Woman in Black Portrait Maria Oakey Dewing 1887
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About this blog

In colonial America, men were considered superior to woman in all ways. In a strict patriarchal hierarchy, men controlled not only wealth & political power but also how their children were raised, religious questions, & all matters of right & wrong.

In the early part of the 19Cy, however, many Americans experienced a revolution in gender. The doctrine of “separate spheres” maintained that woman’s sphere was the world of privacy, family, & morality while man’s sphere was the public world -– economic striving, political maneuvering, & social competition. But women were interested in equality.

In 1848, New York passed the Married Woman’s Property Act. Now a woman wasn’t automatically liable for her husband’s debts; she could enter contracts on her own; she could collect rents or receive an inheritance in her own right; she could file a lawsuit on her own behalf. She became for economic purposes, an individual. By 1900, every state has passed legislation modeled after this, granting married women some control over their property and earnings.

In 1870 after the Civi War, the 15th Amendment was ratified, saying, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” African-Americans could vote, but women could not.

But it was not until 1920, that the 19th Amendment was ratified granting women the right to vote. “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”