Images(2)

The Fortune Teller

Artist Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851 - 1938)

Dateca. 1904-1905

MediumOil on panel

Dimensions15 3/4 × 19 7/8 in. (40 × 50.5 cm)
Framed: 32 × 36 in.

ClassificationsPainting

Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2008.9

Signedl.r., in brown paint: TW Dewing

Accession number 2008.9

On View

On view

Provenanceto (Montross Gallery, New York, NY); to William K. Bixby [1857-1931], St. Louis, MO, 1905; to Lillian Tuttle Bixby [b. 1856] (his wife); to Estate of Lillian Tuttle Bixby, St. Louis, MO, 1931; to (Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, NY), "Old Masters and Nineteenth Century Paintings Belonging to the Estate of the Late Mrs. William K. Bixby," October 23, 1957, lot 39; to Harold McMillan Bixby and William H. Bixby (sons of the above), St. Louis, MO, 1957; to Frances Bixby Caldwell, Elizabeth Bixby Hawkins and Catherine Bixby Barrett (daughters of William H. Bixby), Houston, TX, 1963; (Coe Kerr Gallery, New York, NY), 1983; Private Collection, CA, 1983; (Jordan-Volpe Gallery, New York, NY), 1990; Willard G. "Bill" and Elizabeth "Libby" Clark, Hanford, CA; to (Sotheby's Inc., New York, NY), 2008; purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2008
Label TextThomas Wilmer Dewing’s preferred subjects were elegant women of the Gilded Age depicted with an air of mystery. In this scene, a fortune teller dressed in a Renaissance costume looks down at her cards. The other female sits with eyes closed. Their expressionless faces provide few hints at a narrative. The muted colors and soft brushwork create such a dreamy atmosphere it is difficult to see where the table ends and figures begin. Dewing believed that true art was imaginative art, and that beauty could elevate life.

El tema favorito de Thomas Wilmer Dewing eran las mujeres elegantes de la llamada “Edad Dorada” de los Estados Unidos, quienes además tenían un toque de misterio. En esta escena, una adivina vestida en ropas de la época renacentista estudia sus cartas. La otra mujer está sentada con sus ojos cerrados. Sus rostros carecen de expresiones que puedan indicar lo que está sucediendo. Los colores tenues, y las suaves pinceladas crean una atmósfera de tal ensueño que es difícil distinguir donde termina la mesa y comienzan las figuras. Dewing creía que el arte verdadero era arte de la imaginación, y que la belleza podía elevar la vida.