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Robert Swain Gifford
1840-1905
American Tonalist Marine and Landscape Painter and founding member of the American Society of Painters
Stylistically influenced by the following painters - Albert Van Beest, William Bradford, George Inness,John La Farge, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Cause of Death - Heart Failure
Robert Swain Gifford's tonalist style 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. 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
Key terms and phrase 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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A line is a dot that went for a walk. Paul Klee quote
A beautiful body perishes, but a work of art dies not. Leonardo da Vinci quote
It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.”
Vincent Van Gogh quote
Creativity takes courage. Henri Matisse quote
I shut my eyes in order to see. Paul Gauguin quote
The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands. Leonardo da Vinci quote
Art is not what you see, but what you make others see. Edgar Degas quote
Absinthe is the only decent drink that suits an artist. Paul Gauguin quote
Color is my daylong obsession, joy, and torment. Claude Monet quote
Art is either revolution or plagiarism. Paul Gauguin quote
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. Michelangelo