The Recitation
1891 · Oil on canvas · Detroit Institute of Arts
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About this work
- Artist
- Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851–1938)
- Year
- 1891
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 76.2 × 139.7 cm
- Collection
- Detroit Institute of Arts
- Movement
- Tonalism
Two women in long gowns occupy a wide, misty green lawn, one seated in a chair listening while the other stands at a distance, apparently reciting, with an empty chair between them and a band of pale sky above. Dewing painted such dreamlike, almost empty scenes of women in landscape in the 1890s, and they became the signature of his Tonalist style. The figures are small against the sweep of green and blue, and the mood is quiet and suspended. The Detroit Museum of Art bought the painting in 1908.
This exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A dreamy sea-green and blue scene for a bedroom, living room or reading room in a thin black frame. It suits pale grey, sage or soft white walls at 12×18 and pairs with Dewing's Summer.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Exhibition poster of a Tonalism painting
- Era
- 19th century (1891)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- cream & beige
- Mood
- classic
- Rooms
- living room, bedroom, dining room, dorm room, hallway or entryway
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 12×18. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Exhibition posters sit best in a slim black frame with no mat — the typeset margin is the mat.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is The Recitation in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was The Recitation painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.




























