- Provenance
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From 1905 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Thomas Wilmer Dewing on January 18, 1905 [1]From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [2]Notes:
[1] Object file.
[2] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.
- Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)
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Thomas Wilmer Dewing (C.L. Freer source) 1851-1938
Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919
- Label
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Girl with Lute is a typical work from the late period of Dewing's career, when he often depicted a single figure seated in an interior and playing a musical instrument. Such compositions perpetuate the long established association of art and music.
The model is distant from the viewer, pinned into a precise composition of receding diagonal lines established by the rich carpet and the exotic instrument. Dewing is indebted to the French 18th century painter Jean-Antoine Watteau, whose women often hold musical instruments similar to the one seen here. Dewing softens the dynamism of these lines with suffused light and a neutral background, bathing his subject in an evocative glow.
- Published References
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- Susan Hobbs. Thomas Wilmer Dewing: Beauty into Art: A Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven, CT, November 13, 2018. pg 422, pl 211.
- Royal Cortissoz. An American Artist Canonized in the Freer Gallery. vol. LXXIV, November 1923. frontispiece.
- Susan Hobbs. The Art of Thomas Wilmer Dewing: Beauty Reconfigured. Exh. cat. Washington, 1996. p. 34, fig. 25.
- Ulrich W. Hiesinger. Impressionism in America: The Ten American Painters. Munich and New York, 1991. p. 162.
- David Park Curry. Charles Lang Freer and American Art. vol. 118, no. 258, special issue., August 1983. pp. 168-79, fig. 2.
- Charles Henry Caffin. The Art of Thomas W. Dewing. vol. 116, no. 695, April 1908. p. 719.
- Collection Area(s)
- American Art
- Web Resources
- Google Cultural Institute
- SI Usage Statement
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CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)
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