After a brief return to America, Twachtman studied from 1883 to 1885 at the Académie Julian in Paris, and his paintings dramatically shifted towards a soft, gray and green
tonalist style.
After studying art in Venice, Afro quickly emerged — in the 1930s — as a signi cant member of the School of Rome, a group of
tonalist painters whose expressionist
style contrasted with the prevalent neoclassical «return to order» of the day.