Tonalism
Tonalism was an artistic style that emerged in the 1880s. The movement was eventually eclipsed by Impressionism and European modernism.
Tonalism
- Name
- Tonalism
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Associated With · incoming
L. Birge Harrison
Artist
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Paintings by Alexander Harrison and Birge Harrison at Detroit Museum of Art[,] January fourth to thirty-first. Nineteen fourteen.

Associated With · incoming
Mary Rogers Williams
Artist
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In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Tonalism • Yearsactive — from the 1880s into the early 20th century • Country — United States • Influences — French Barbizon school, Hudson River School • Majorfigures — Albert Pinkham Ryder, George Inness, John Henry Twachtman, James McNeill Whistler • Influenced — Milton Avery, the Color Field painters, the circle of artists around Alfred Stieglitz, and etchers like Edith Loring Getchell
French origins
French origins
The French Barbizon school artists emphasized mood and shadow. The movement was eventually eclipsed by Impressionism and European modernism.
America
America
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. 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. Two of the leading associated painters were George Inness and James McNeill Whistler.
Australia
Australia
Australian tonalism emerged as an art movement in Melbourne during the 1910s when it was promoted as a method of 'scientific' realist painting by Max Meldrum through his art school.
Britain
Britain
St Ives artists were the leading exponents of this style in British landscape painting.
Canada
Canada
In Canada the movement emerged in the 1890s through the influence of the American, Whistler.
Artists
Artists
• Willis Seaver Adams • George Ames Aldrich • Joseph Allworthy • Edward Mitchell Bannister • Clarice Beckett • Ralph Albert Blakelock • Emanuele Cavalli • Jean-Charles Cazin • Colin Colahan • Paul Cornoyer • Bruce Crane • Leon Dabo • Elliott Daingerfield • Angel De Cora • Charles Melville Dewey • Thomas Dewing • Charles Warren Eaton • Henry Farrer • Edith Loring Getchell • Percy Gray • L. Birge Harrison • Arthur Hoeber • George Inness • William Keith • Percy Leason • Xavier Martinez • Arthur Frank Mathews • Max Meldrum • Robert Crannell Minor • John Francis Murphy • Frank Nuderscher • Fausto Pirandello • Henry Ward Ranger • Granville Redmond • Albert Pinkham Ryder • William Sartain • Edward Steichen • Dwight William Tryon • Jules Turcas • John Twachtman • Clark Greenwood Voorhees • J. Alden Weir • James McNeill Whistler • Alexander Helwig Wyant • Raymond Dabb Yelland
Gallery
Gallery
• Illustration — Albert Pinkham Ryder, Siegfried and the Rhine Maidens (1888 - 1891), National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC • Illustration — George Inness, Summer Landscape, 1894 • Illustration — John H. Twachtman, The White Bridge, c. 1895, Minneapolis Institute of Arts • Illustration — Leon Dabo, The Seashore, c. 1900; Oil on masonite; 76.8 x 86.4 cm • Illustration — John Francis Murphy, Brooding New York landscape, c. 1900
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Tonalism, revision 1366829561 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 26 September 2026.
Elsewhere in General
22,760 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Toms RiverPlace
- Tomsk Polytechnic UniversityOrganisation
- TonaláPlace
- TonaleaPlace
- TonawandaPlace
- TonbridgePlace
- Tonbridge Grammar SchoolOrganisation
- Tonbridge SchoolOrganisation
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