Julian Alden Weir tonalist artist

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Julian Alden Weir

1852-1919

American Impressionist Tonalist Painter and founding member of the Ten American Painters

Stylistically influenced by the following painters and movements - Impressionism, Japanese Prints, Claude Monet John Henry Twachtman, Jules Bastien-Lepage, Robert Swain Gifford and James Abbott McNeill Whistler

Education - studied at the National Academy of Design in the United States and later at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France under Jean Leon Gerome

Cause of Death - Old Age

Description of the Julian Alden Weir's Tonalist and Impressionist Painting Style and Technique

Julian Alden Weir was born into a family of notable nineteenth-century painters. Instructed at first by his demanding father, and later at painting academes at home and abroad. The artist was a master at depicting the natural environment. His Connecticut landscapes richly record the changing of the seasons, with spring and, especially, summer, much more often depicted than the winter and fall preferred by the American tonalists. Weir's varied technique successfully incorporated both tonalistic and Impressionist elements into his artworks. Both his portraits and landscapes reflect a certain fascination with light and atmospheric effects most often associated with impressionism. Weir's later portraits show his fondness for 19th century Japanese prints.

Julian Alden Weir Quotes

Description of the Tonalist Painting Style and Technique

Tonalism is rooted in the French Barbizon movement, which emphasized atmosphere and shadow. The Tonalist style employs a distinctive technique by the use of color's middle values as opposed to stronger contrast and high chroma. Resulting in a understated and compelling overall effect. The tonalist subject matter is never entirely apparent; their is no effort to communicate a message or narrate a story. Instead of relating a story, each sensitively chosen color, composition, and line is arranged to create an intriguing visual poem.

The interiors of tonalist paintings are generally elegant and sparsely decorated, tonally uniform, simplified and indistinct; the figures are usually presented alone in silent contemplation. Landscapes are typically luscious and luminous with evocative atmospheric effects featuring misty backgrounds illuminated by moonlight. Tonalists painters were drawn to both the natural and spiritual realms. They sought to awaken the viewers consciousness by shrouding the subject in a misty indistinct veil of emotionalism. The palette is minimal, characterized by warm hues of brown, soft greens, gauzy yellows and muted grays. Preferred themes were evocative moonlight nights and poetic, vaporous landscapes. Tonalist painters seemed to favored unconscious states and psychological experiences over reality.

Principle Painters of Tonalism Movement

Ralph Albert Blakelock American, 1847-1919
Thomas Wilmer Dewing American, 1851-1938]
Robert Swain Gifford American, 1840-1905
Alexander Thomas Harrison American, 1854 -1929
Lowell Birge Harrison American, 1854-1929
George Inness American, 1825-1894
John La Farge American, 1835-1910
Arthur Frank Mathews American, 1860-1945
John Francis Murphy American, 1853-1921
Albert Pinkham Ryder American, 1847-1917
John Henry Twachtman American,1853-1902
Julian Alden Weir American,1852-1919
James Abbott McNeill Whistler American, 1843-1903

Important words and phrases associated with the Tonalist movement - obscured details, single-figure themes, the natural and spiritual domain, waking, unconscious states, sleep, dreams, death, aura, religious significance, emotionalism, emotionalists, pictorial space, compositional space, diffused light, incandescent glow, organic forms, artistic inspiration, illusionistic representation, luminous, transcendentalist, glowing, metaphysical, emotional expression, poetic, evocative

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