at its zenith, began to simplify his works and adopt what is now known as the Tonalist style, but then it could be referred to as Quietism. As American artists who had traveled or studied abroad brought the Barbizon style back with them, even homegrown talents were influenced. By the 1890s, dozens of Eastern American painters, in the American Barbizon school, were painting muted, intimate landscapes with a narrow range of colors and some of them were even exhibiting works of French peasants. Whistler influence The other major influence on the development of American Tonalism was the expatriate American painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Whistler was eccentric and unique and there were a number of different influences that were responsible for his artistic development. Because he lived and studied in Paris, he was familiar with the Barbizon School and knew a number of the French artists, but he was also a major exponent of Japonisme, the European and American movement influenced by Japanese art, especially their woodblock prints. Whistler was a major influence on a number of younger American artists with whom he came into contact in Europe. He advocated close color harmonies and simplified compositions, devoid of what he considered extraneous detail. Tonalism in Northern California At the same time the California landscape became domesticated and its cities and towns were becoming well-developed, a group of artists a generation younger than William Keith and Thomas Hill were emerging in Northern California. Their development coincided with the popularity of the French Barbizon School with collectors and the growth of an American school of painters who had been influenced by the French movement. So, it seems natural that they turned to Tonalism to render and express their vision of the Northern California landscape, especially when the climate was often wet and misty. Tonalism in Southern California In spite of Southern California's intense sunlight, a number of the artists who worked in and around Los Angeles in the last decade of the 19th century and the first few years of the 20th century at least began their careers as Tonalists. At that time, Barbizon paintings were extremely popular among collectors and many of the most successful American painters worked in Barbizon an influential style. The wooded glades that artists in France and Northern California favored were not abundant in Southern California, so some of the painters such as Elmer Wachtel, William Lees