tonalism

{{Short description|American artistic movement}}

{{Infobox art movement|name=Tonalism|image=Whistler-Nocturne in black and gold.jpg|caption=James McNeill Whistler, Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket, c. 1875; oil on panel; 60.3 × 46.4 cm|yearsactive=from the 1880s into the early 20th century|country=United States|influences=French Barbizon school, Hudson River School|majorfigures=Albert Pinkham Ryder, George Inness, John Henry Twachtman, James McNeill Whistler|influenced=Milton Avery, the Color Field painters, the circle of artists around Alfred Stieglitz, and etchers like Edith Loring Getchell}}

Tonalism was an artistic style that emerged in the 1880s when American artists began to paint landscape forms with an overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist. Between 1880 and 1915, dark, neutral hues such as gray, brown or blue, often dominated compositions by artists associated with the style.{{Cite web|title=What is Tonalism? Tonalism Palette, Tonalism Definition|url=https://www.tonalism.com/what-is-tonalism|access-date=2021-11-28|website=Tonalism|language=en-US}} During the late 1890s, American art critics began to use the term "tonal" to describe these works, as well as the lesser-known synonyms Quietism and Intimism.{{Cite news|last=Raynor|first=Vivien|date=1982-06-27|title=ART; MOODY SCENES FROM TONALISTS|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/27/nyregion/art-moody-scenes-from-tonalists.html|access-date=2021-11-28|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web|title=The Sublime Landscape|url=http://tfaoi.org/aa/4aa/4aa472.htm|access-date=2021-11-28|website=tfaoi.org}} Two of the leading associated painters were George Inness and James McNeill Whistler.{{Cite web|title=The 4 Most Important Names of Tonalism|url=https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/tonalism-artists|access-date=2021-11-28|website=Widewalls|language=en}}

Tonalism is sometimes used to describe American landscapes derived from the French Barbizon style,Avery, Kevin J. & Fischer, Diane P. "American Tonalism: Selections from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Montclair Art Museum ". Burlington Magazine, Vol. 142, No. 1168, July, 2000. p. 453. which emphasized mood and shadow.{{Cite web|title=American Tonalism|url=https://www.artsy.net/gene/american-tonalism|access-date=2021-12-01|website=Artsy}} Tonalism was eventually eclipsed by Impressionism and European modernism.

Australian Tonalism emerged as an art movement in Melbourne during the 1910s.