Lady in White (No. 1)

Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Lady in White (No. 1), ca. 1910, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly, 1929.6.29
Copied Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Lady in White (No. 1), ca. 1910, oil on canvas, 26 1⁄4 x 20 1⁄4 in. (66.6 x 51.3 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly, 1929.6.29
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Artwork Details

Title
Lady in White (No. 1)
Artist
Date
ca. 1910
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
26 1⁄4 x 20 1⁄4 in. (66.6 x 51.3 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of John Gellatly
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Object — furniture — mirror
  • Portrait female — unidentified — full length
Object Number
1929.6.29
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1929.6.29

Artwork Description

In this painting, Thomas Wilmer Dewing so simplified the space that it appears to exist outside of time. He painted Lady in White (No. 1) in the same year that the United States entered World War I, and works such as this provided Dewing's patrons with an antidote to the turmoil of the times. A contemporary critic remarked that Dewing's women are never eager or anxious, their nerves not toiling and spinning, but in equilibrium (Ross, "Rest for the Weary: American Nervousness and the Aesthetics of Repose," in Ross, Women on the Verge, 2004).