Introducing: Tonalism

The term Tonalism was coined in 1972 by Wanda Corn to describe a movement in American painting that lasted from around 1870 until 1914. It was marked by a highly evocative and poetical approach to landscape painting characterized by misty ‘tonal’ harmonies. James McNeill Whistler, George Inness, Thomas Wilmer Dewing and John Henry Twachtman were some of its most important practitioners. Their original inspiration derived from the mood and atmosphere of French Barbizon School painting, especially the ‘soft-edged’ late-works of Corot. Tonalism ignored detail by utilizing the hazy light effects of dawn and dusk, creating pictorial harmonies from simplified masses of light and dark. Unlike the Impressionists, they often relied on a muted palette of greys and browns. By the 1880s, this distinctive style had been taken up by many painters on the east coast, and within a decade, Northern Californian artists had followed suit. Their theme of ‘foggy’, indistinct subject matter also influenced the work of photographers such as Edward Steichen. Impressionism and later avant-garde movements eventually eclipsed Tonalism, but its influence on the development of 20th century abstract painting was significant.