On View
On viewObject number1995/6.12
Twilight
Maker
Alfred Juergens
(American, 1866-1934)
Dateca. 1890-92
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionsframe: 50 × 60 × 2 1/2 in. (127 × 152.4 × 6.4 cm)
canvas: 38 × 48 in. (96.5 × 121.9 cm)
canvas: 38 × 48 in. (96.5 × 121.9 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Dryer Family Foundation and Permanent Collection Fund
Exhibition HistoryOn loan to Grand Rapids Art Museum (Apr. 29, 1997 - Aug. 6, 1998).
"Legendary Voices: Art for the Next Century," KIA (September 7 - February 18, 2025)Label TextUndulating layers of color paint the late evening sky. A landscape filled with trees is silhouetted against dynamic clouds. The sky is reflected in the calm lake below, lined by a dimly-lit shore of rocks and grass. Although dark and serene, the scene is energized by vibrant colors. The atmospheric glow of the setting sun is a common subject among Tonalist work. Tonalism was an aesthetic movement that arose around the 1880s and lasted until shortly after the turn of the century. These artists painted hazy or dark landscapes with an overall, colored “tone” that evoked a melancholy mood or spiritual experience of nature. The glowing color of dawn or dusk illuminating an uninhabited landscape can give Tonalist paintings a calm and eerie quality. Alfred Juergens worked in this style, painting landscapes with a darker and more dramatic color palette, before he was later influenced by the brighter, sunlight-infused colors of the French Impressionist painters.
