Image Credit: Eliot Clark, Storm, Virginia, undated, oil on canvas. Support: 6 x 8 1/2 inches; Image: 5 3/4 x 8 inches; Framed: 16 5/8 x 18 1/2 x 2 inches. On Loan from The Johnson Collection, Spartenburg, South Carolina.
Following the American Civil War, American artists quieted their paintings, embracing blurred contours, muted palettes, and introspective atmospheres. Often considered the moody counterpoint to Impressionism’s vibrant and light-filled canvases, Tonalism offered a harmonious space for respite and reflection in a rapidly changing world. This lecture will explore the foundations of this often-misunderstood artistic movement and how the landscape of the American South became a subject for the art of painting softly.