4. Thomas Wilmer Dewing Lady in Yellow (or Study - Yellow Drapery), 1894 Pastel on light-brown paper 10 1/4 x 6 3/4 inches

Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938)
Lady in Yellow, 1894 (or Study-Yellow Drapery)
Pastel on light-brown paper
10 1/4 x 6 3/4 inches
Signed lower right: T.W. Dewing

Frame:original to the work; lace design by Stanford White

Ex-collections:

The artist
Charles Lang Freer, 1894
Colonel Frank J. Hecker, 1894
By family descent, until the present.

Exhibitions:

St. Louis, St Louis World's Fair, April 30-December 1, 1904
New York, Brooklyn Museum, "The Art of Thomas Wilmer Dewing: Beauty Reconfigured," March 21-June 9, 1996; p. 204, cat. no. 59, illustrated, Washington, D.C., National Museum of American Art, July 19-October 14, 1996; Detroit, Michigan, The Detroit Institute of Arts, November 9, 1996-January 19, 1997

"During 1894, when he was particularly anxious to raise money for travel abroad, Dewing drew a number of pastels featuring "greek costume" and "modern balldresses," as he termed them. The model for these works--and probably for this example, as well--was the beautiful Minnie Clark, known for her high cheekbones, brilliant complexion, and dark tresses. It is apparent from correspondence that [Charles Lang] Freer, after having bought a pastel called The Pink Dress for himself in February 1894, bought this companion work for his friend [Colonel Frank J.] Hecker later that summer. Freer had a frame specially made for his pastel after Stanford White's lace pattern, and it is probable that he commissioned the identical frame for this work.

Lady in Yellow exemplifies the careful drawing and anatomical precision that characterize Dewing's early pastels. Perhaps inspired by Whistler's costume sketches, which contain one predominant hue and focus upon the gown of the sitter, Dewing worked this pastel in a pure yellow pigment. Utilizing the hand-on-hip pose he often employed at this time, the artist emphasized the sheen of the sitter's gold satin gown, which he softened with a gauzy veil across her bust and around her left arm. In the Whistlerian manner, he defined the figure with a thin line of black pastel, a technique that is evident along the flounces of the dress. Dewing, like Whistler, produced works that were primarily aesthetic in intention, a goal suggested by the title under which Dewing exhibited this pastel at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair: Study-Yellow Drapery. *

*Susan A. Hobbs, "The Art of Thomas Wilmer Dewing: Beauty Reconfigured" (Washington, D.C., and London: Brooklyn Museum in association with Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996), p. 204.

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