THE FORTUNE TELLER POSTCARD

$1.50 at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

Thomas Wilmer Dewing’s preferred subjects were elegant women of the Gilded Age depicted with an air of mystery. In this scene, a fortune teller dressed in a Renaissance costume looks down at her cards. The other female sits with eyes closed. Their expressionless faces provide few hints at a narrative. The muted colors and soft brushwork create such a dreamy atmosphere it is difficult to see where the table ends and figures begin. Dewing believed that true art was imaginative art, and that beauty could elevate…