California Tonalism

California Tonalism was the West Coast flowering of Tonalism, the late-19th-century style of mood, atmosphere and restricted color associated with Whistler. In the cool, foggy light of northern California, painters like Charles Rollo Peters - whose moonlit Monterey landscapes are its emblem - and the Mexican-born Xavier Martinez developed an intimate, poetic landscape art of twilight, dusk and mist. Painted in harmonies of gray, violet and muted green rather than Impressionist brightness, these works prized reverie and suggestion over description. The mood persisted in California painting into the 1920s and 1930s before being overshadowed by the brighter Impressionist manner associated with the south of the state.

Defining characteristics

• Muted, harmonious tonal palettes - grays, violets, muted greens
• Twilight, dusk, and nocturne subjects
• Atmospheric mist and softened, simplified forms
• Mood and poetic suggestion over topographic description
• Whistler-influenced intimacy of tone and finish

Key figures

• Charles Rollo Peters (1862-1928) — Painter of moonlit Monterey landscapes
• Xavier Martinez (1869-1943) — Tonalist painter of Bay Area landscapes and figures

Sources

• California Tonalism - Wikipedia encyclopedia

← Back to the catalog