Charles Melville Dewey was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 tonalist

Tonalism

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...

 painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

. He was born in Lowville

Lowville, New York

Lowville, New York may refer to:*Lowville , New York, located in Lewis County*Lowville , New York, located within the Town of Lowville...

, N. Y.

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

  Confined to his bed from his twelfth to his seventeenth year by a hip disease, he formed the poetic conception of nature

Nature

Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...

 which appears in his pictures. He studied in the schools of the National Academy of Design

National Academy of Design

The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, founded in New York City as the National Academy of Design – known simply as the "National Academy" – is an honorary association of American artists founded in 1825 by Samuel F. B. Morse, Asher B. Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E...

, New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 (1874-76), and in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 under Carolus-Duran

Carolus-Duran

Charles Auguste Émile Durand, known as Carolus-Duran , was a French painter and art instructor. He is noted for his stylish depictions of members of high society in Third Republic France.-Biography:...

, whom he assisted to paint a ceiling in the Louvre

Louvre

The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...

. In 1878 he returned to New York. Dewey's work is full of a highly individual, poetic sentiment and generally depicts subdued morning and evening effects. His landscapes in oil and water color are in many public galleries and private collections in the United States. Among his best are:

• "Indian Summer" and "A November Evening" (1904)
• "Morning Bay of St.Ives" and "The Brook" (1905)
• "The Edge of the Forest" (Corcoran Gallery, Washington)
• "The Harvest Moon" and "The Close of Day" (National Gallery, Washington)
• "The Gray Robe of Twilight" (Buffalo Gallery)
• "Old Fields" (Pennsylvania Academy, Philadelphia)

He was made a member of the National Academy of Design in 1907

Sources