'The Recitation' Invites Viewers to Listen to Literature

A reproduction of "The Recitation" by Thomas Dewing is on display through September at Mary Kay Davis Park.

It is one of five artworks from the Detroit Institute of Arts on display this summer throughout Huntington Woods as part of the fourth annual Inside|Out program.

"Three simple horizontal bands of color make up the background of this picture," the DIA says of the oil on canvas painted in 1891. "It is the placement of the women, chairs and clusters of fireflies that gives the landscape depth and helps us see the entire scene as an outdoor stage for a recitation of literature. The artist places us behind the seated woman as if inviting us to be part of the audience in the ethereal setting."

Dewing was an American tonalist painter who studied in Paris and worked in a studio in New York; tonalism was a style in which an overall hue would be used to create a misty, moody quality, according to reference.com.

"The ethereal delicacy and subtle color harmonies of Dewing's paintings have not met with universal approval," the website says. "Some feminist critics have lambasted Dewing's work as being misogynistic; he rarely painted anything other than the female figure, vacant of expression, languishing in sumptuous clothing." 

[Read: Your Guide to DIA Inside|Out Exhibit in Huntington Woods]

[Read: Your Guide to DIA Inside|Out Exhibit in Berkley]