Lot 128: THOMAS WILMER DEWING (1851-1938)

JUNE signed " T. Dewing, " l.r. - - oil on canvas 20 1/4 x 9 1/8 in. (51.3 x 23.2 cm.) PROVENANCE E. A. Milch Company, New York Edwin C. Shaw, Akron Akron Art Institute, Akron Victor Spark, New York Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York " June " is the embodiment of a theme that intrigued Dewing for thirty years. The images of women in gardens reflected his vision of contemporary American life as a psychic state, a weightless Edenic existence, and combined this vision with references to classical art that were both personal to him and universal to Symbolist art. Dewing pioneered a Symbolist synthesis in America in which the essences of inner life were expressively implied in the manipulation of form, line and color. His later approach to painting, in allowing meaning to emerge from the abstract treatment of motif, eluded many, except for a "few choice spirits" such as Charles Lang Freer and Dwight Tryon. This painting, executed " circa " 1920, continues Dewing's interest in the symbolist, themes. A letter dated October 15, 1987, from Dr. Susan Hobbs discussing this painting, accompanies the lot.