| Although today Impressionism receives scholarly attention, and great support from museum-going audiences, not all Americans at the close of the nineteenth century embraced this style. Instead, during the 1890s and first decade of the twentieth century, a group of collectors and critics identified and encouraged a tonalist style as an alternative to Impressionism. This style emphasized harmonious modulations of color and old master techniques. The tonal aesthetic is the subject of this dissertation.;In order to examine the tonalist aesthetic, this investigation centers on four distinct subjects, a private club, a collector, an artist, and a major exhibition. The club is the Lotos Club, which promoted a tonalist style through its exhibition program. The collector is William T. Evans, chair of the Lotos Club's Art Committee, and one of the most influential collectors of this era. The artist is Henry Ward Ranger, a spokesman for the tonalist style and an active member of the Lotos Club. The exhibition is the 1904 Comparative Exhibition of Native and Foreign Art which privileged tonal painting over other styles.;An analysis of these topics presents a clearer understanding of taste, painting, and collecting at the end of the nineteenth century. What will become apparent is that the contrasting colors and broken brushwork of Impressionism did not match the taste of many of the largest and most influential collectors of contemporary American painting. |
