Tonalism
Mist, dusk and a few close colours: Whistler's nocturnes, Dewing's figures in green rooms, Ryder's moonlit seas.
16 prints · printed to order on heavyweight matte paper · framed or unframed
Painting the mood
From about 1880 to 1915 a group of American painters let one tone carry a picture: grey-blue, olive, gold at dusk. Whistler named his river views at night Nocturnes and his portraits Arrangements, to say that the colour mattered more than the subject. Thomas Dewing painted women in quiet green rooms; Albert Pinkham Ryder built up moonlit seas in thick, layered paint; George Inness's late landscapes dissolve into haze.
On the wall
Quiet pictures for a bedroom, a study or a reading corner, where they reward a long look. They hold a deep wall colour well: navy, olive, charcoal. A dark wood frame suits the warm ones, black the night scenes.