The works of the American artist George Inness inspired a style of art called Tonalism, which focuses on communicating the mood, emotions, and thoughts that an image conveys, rather than on creating an exact representation of an image. In the words of Inness, “A work of art is not to instruct, not to edify, but to awaken emotion.”
Autumn Oaks,
an oil painting on canvas, which is currently displayed at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York,
exhibits some of the techniques which artists can use to evoke moods and
emotions through a scene. The technique
of casting a single tone or hue throughout the picture, from which Tonalism
takes its name, can be seen in Autumn
Oaks. The gray tones in the
foreground and the sky draw out the rusty hue of the oak trees by
contrast. The blurred edges of the trees
and other figures cause this hue to overflow into the whole picture. Autumn
Oaks also displays how an artist, especially when he is not trying to
exactly represent a scene, can structure the elements in the scene to guide the
viewer’s attention. For example, in Autumn Oaks, the figures are arranged to
draw the viewer’s eye to the three large oak trees.
