Standing Figure with Outstretched Arm

Thomas Wilmer Dewing, like many European and American artists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, often featured the solitary female figure as a central element in his paintings and pastels. In this example, Dewing used subtle gradations of color within a very austere composition to create a figure that emerges almost ghost-like into the picture. Her form is solid only in her face and head, perhaps to convey an aura of intelligence, while her body, including her outstretched arm, dissipates into a wispy, vaporous form. Dewing frequently refined his compositions to a minimum of representation, resulting in a sort of pictorial haiku of lofty and noble values.