Tonalism

American artistic movement

Tonalism
James McNeill Whistler, Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket, c. 1875; Oil on panel; 60.3 x 46.4 cm
Years active	from the 1880s into the early 20th century
Location	United States
Major figures	Albert Pinkham Ryder, George Inness, John Henry Twachtman, James McNeill Whistler
Influences	French Barbizon school, Hudson River School
Influenced	Milton Avery, the Color Field painters, the circle of artists around Alfred Stieglitz and etchers like Edith Loring Getchell

Tonalism was an artistic style that emerged in the 1880s when American artists began to paint landscape forms with an overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist. Between 1880 and 1915, dark, neutral hues such as gray, brown or blue, often dominated compositions by artists associated with the style.^[1] During the late 1890s, American art critics began to use the term "tonal" to describe these works, as well as the lesser-known synonyms Quietism and Intimism.^[2]^[3] Two of the leading associated painters were George Inness and James McNeill Whistler.^[4]

Tonalism is sometimes used to describe American landscapes derived from the French Barbizon style,^[5] which emphasized mood and shadow.^[6] Tonalism was eventually eclipsed by Impressionism and European modernism.

Australian Tonalism emerged as an art movement in Melbourne during the 1910s.

Associated artists

Gallery

Albert Pinkham Ryder, Siegfried and the Rhine Maidens (1888 - 1891), National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
George Inness, Summer Landscape, 1894
John H. Twachtman, The White Bridge, c. 1895, Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Leon Dabo, The Seashore, c. 1900; Oil on masonite; 76.8 x 86.4 cm
John Francis Murphy, Brooding New York landscape, c. 1900

Notes

^ "What is Tonalism? Tonalism Palette, Tonalism Definition". Tonalism. Retrieved 2021-11-28.
^ Raynor, Vivien (1982-06-27). "ART; MOODY SCENES FROM TONALISTS". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-11-28.
^ "The Sublime Landscape". tfaoi.org. Retrieved 2021-11-28.
^ "The 4 Most Important Names of Tonalism". Widewalls. Retrieved 2021-11-28.
^ Avery, Kevin J. & Fischer, Diane P. "American Tonalism: Selections from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Montclair Art Museum ". Burlington Magazine, Vol. 142, No. 1168, July, 2000. p. 453.
^ "American Tonalism". Artsy. Retrieved 2021-12-01.

External links

American Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a fully digitized 3 volume exhibition catalog
American Tonalism - Montclair Art Museum

Western, Modern and Contemporary art movements

List of art movements / Periods

Premodern
(Western)

Ancient	Thracian Dacian Nuragic Aegean Cycladic Minoan Minyan ware Mycenaean Greek Sub-Mycenaean Protogeometric Geometric Orientalizing Archaic Black-figure Red-figure Severe style Classical Kerch style Hellenistic "Baroque" Indo-Greek Greco-Buddhist Neo-Attic Etruscan Scythian Iberian Gaulish Roman Republican Gallo-Roman Julio-Claudian Pompeian Styles Trajanic Severan
Medieval	Late antique Early Christian Coptic Ethiopian Migration Period Anglo-Saxon Hunnic Insular Lombard Visigothic Donor portrait Pictish Mozarabic Repoblación Viking Byzantine Iconoclast Macedonian Palaeologan Italo-Byzantine Frankish Merovingian Carolingian Pre-Romanesque Ottonian Romanesque Mosan Spanish Norman Norman-Sicilian Opus Anglicanum Gothic International Gothic International Gothic art in Italy Lucchese School Crusades Novgorod School Duecento Sienese School Mudéjar Medieval cartography Italian school Majorcan school Mappa mundi
Renaissance	Italian Renaissance Trecento Proto-Renaissance Florentine School Pittura infamante Quattrocento Ferrarese School Forlivese School Venetian School Di sotto in sù Cinquecento High Renaissance Bolognese School Mannerism Counter-Maniera Northern Renaissance Early Netherlandish World landscape Ghent-Bruges school Northern Mannerism German Renaissance Cologne School Danube school Dutch and Flemish Renaissance Antwerp Mannerism Romanism Still life English Renaissance Tudor court Cretan School Turquerie Fontainebleau School Art of the late 16th century in Milan
17th century	Baroque Flemish Baroque Caravaggisti in Utrecht Tenebrism Quadratura Louis XIII style Lutheran Baroque Stroganov School Animal painting Guild of Romanists Dutch Golden Age Delft School Capriccio Heptanese School Classicism Louis XIV style Poussinists and Rubenists
18th century	Rococo Rocaille Louis XV style Frederician Chinoiserie Fête galante Neoclassicism Goût grec Louis XVI style Adam style Directoire style Picturesque
Colonial art	Art of the African diaspora African-American Caribbean Haitian Colonial Asian art Arts in the Philippines Letras y figuras Tipos del País Colonial Asian Baroque Company style Latin American art Casta painting Indochristian art Chilote School Cusco School Quito School Latin American Baroque
Art borrowing Western elements	Islamic Moorish Manichaean Mughal Qajar Qing handicrafts Western influence in Japan Akita ranga Uki-e
Transition to modern (c. 1770–1862)	Romanticism Fairy painting Danish Golden Age Troubadour style Nazarene movement Purismo Shoreham Ancients Düsseldorf School Pre-Raphaelites Hudson River School American luminism Orientalism Norwich School Empire style Historicism Revivalism Biedermeier Realism Barbizon school Costumbrismo Verismo Macchiaioli Academic art Munich School in Greece Neo-Grec Etching revival

Modern
(1863–1944)

1863–1899	Neo-romanticism National romanticism Yōga Nihonga Japonisme Anglo-Japanese style Beuron School Hague School Peredvizhniki Impressionism American Hoosier Group Boston School Amsterdam Canadian Heidelberg School Aestheticism Arts and Crafts Art pottery Tonalism Decadent movement Symbolism Romanian Russian Volcano School Incoherents Post-Impressionism Neo-Impressionism Luminism Divisionism Pointillism Pont-Aven School Cloisonnism Synthetism Les Nabis American Barbizon school California Tonalism Costumbrismo
1900–1914	Art Nouveau Primitivism California Impressionism Secessionism School of Paris Munich Secession Vienna Secession Berlin Secession Sonderbund Pennsylvania Impressionism Mir iskusstva Ten American Painters Fauvism Expressionism Die Brücke Der Blaue Reiter Noucentisme Deutscher Werkbund American Realism Ashcan School Cubism Proto-Cubism Orphism A Nyolcak Neue Künstlervereinigung München Futurism Cubo-Futurism Art Deco Metaphysical Rayonism Productivism Synchromism Vorticism
1915–1944	Sosaku-hanga Suprematism School of Paris Crystal Cubism Constructivism Latin American Universal Constructivism Dada Shin-hanga Neoplasticism De Stijl Purism Return to order Novecento Italiano Figurative Constructivism Stupid Cologne Progressives Arbeitsrat für Kunst November Group Australian tonalism Dresden Secession Social realism Functionalism Bauhaus Kinetic art Anthropophagy Mingei Group of Seven New Objectivity Grosvenor School Neues Sehen Surrealism Iranian Latin American Mexican muralism Neo-Fauvism Precisionism Aeropittura Asso Scuola Romana Cercle et Carré Harlem Renaissance Kapists Regionalism California Scene Painting Heroic realism Socialist realism Nazi art Streamline Moderne Concrete art Abstraction-Création The Ten Dimensionism Boston Expressionism Leningrad School

Contemporary
and Postmodern
(1945–present)

1945–1959	International Typographic Style Abstract expressionism Washington Color School Visionary art Vienna School of Fantastic Realism Spatialism Color field Lyrical abstraction Tachisme Arte Informale COBRA Nuagisme Generación de la Ruptura Jikken Kōbō Metcalf Chateau Mono-ha Nanyang Style Action painting American Figurative Expressionism in New York New media art New York School Hard-edge painting Bay Area Figurative Movement Les Plasticiens Gutai Art Association Gendai Bijutsu Kondankai Pop art Situationist International Soviet Nonconformist Ukrainian underground Lettrism Letterist International Ultra-Lettrist Florida Highwaymen Cybernetic art Antipodeans
1960–1969	Otra Figuración Afrofuturism Nueva Presencia ZERO Happening Neo-Dada Neo-Dada Organizers Op art Nouveau réalisme Nouvelle tendance Capitalist realism Art & Language Arte Povera Black Arts Movement The Caribbean Artists Movement Chicano art movement Conceptual art Land art Systems art Video art Minimalism Fluxus Generative art Post-painterly abstraction Intermedia Psychedelic art Nut Art Photorealism Environmental art Performance art Process art Institutional critique Light and Space Street art Feminist art movement in the US Saqqakhaneh movement The Stars Art Group Tropicália Yoru no Kai Artificial intelligence art
1970–1999	Post-conceptual art Installation art Artscene Postminimalism Endurance art Sots Art Moscow Conceptualists Pattern and Decoration Pliontanism Punk art Neo-expressionism Transavantgarde Saint Soleil School Guerrilla art Lowbrow art Telematic art Appropriation art Neo-conceptual art New European Painting Tunisian collaborative painting Memphis Group Cyberdelic Neue Slowenische Kunst Scratch video Retrofuturism Young British Artists Superfiction Taring Padi Superflat New Leipzig School Artist-run initiative Artivism The Designers Republic Grunge design Verdadism
2000– present	Amazonian pop art Altermodern Art for art Art game Art intervention Brandalism Classical Realism Contemporary African art Africanfuturism Contemporary Indigenous Australian art Crypto art Cyborg art Excessivism Fictive art Flat design Corporate Memphis Hypermodernism Hyperrealism Idea art Internet art Post-Internet iPhone art Kitsch movement Lightpainting Massurrealism Modern European ink painting Neo-futurism Neomodern Neosymbolism Passionism Post-YBAs Relational art Skeuomorphism Software art Sound art Stuckism Superflat SoFlo Superflat Superstroke Toyism Unilalianism Walking Artists Network