Charles Demuth (November 8, 1883 - October 23, 1935) was an American
watercolorist who turned to oils late in his career, developing a style of
painting known as Precisionism.
Charles Demuth (November 8, 1883 - October 23, 1935) was an American
watercolorist who turned to oils late in his career, developing a style of
painting known as Precisionism.
"Search the history of American art," wrote Ken Johnson in the New York Times,
"and you will discover few watercolors more beautiful than those of Charles
Demuth. Combining exacting botanical observation and loosely Cubist abstraction,
his watercolors of flowers, fruit and vegetables have a magical liveliness and
an almost shocking sensuousness."
Demuth was a lifelong resident of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The home he shared
with his mother is now a museum of his work. He graduated from Franklin &
Marshall Academy before studying at Drexel University and at Philadelphia's
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. While he was a student at PAFA, he met
William Carlos Williams at his boarding house. The two were fast friends and
remained close for the rest of their lives.
He later studied at Académie Colarossi and Académie Julian in Paris, where he
became a part of the avant garde art scene. The Parisian artistic community was
accepting of Demuth's homosexuality.
Career
While he was in Paris he met Marsden Hartley by walking up to a table of
American artists and asking if he could join them. He had a great sense of
humor, rich in double entendres and they asked him to be a regular member of
their group. Through Hartley he met Alfred Stieglitz and became a member of the
Stieglitz group. In 1926, he had a one-man show at the Anderson Galleries and
Intimate Gallery the New York gallery run by his friend Alfred Stieglitz.[1]
His most famous painting, The Figure 5 in Gold (also sometimes called I Saw the
Figure 5 in Gold), was inspired by his friend William Carlos Williams's poem The
Great Figure. This is one of nine poster portraits Demuth created to honor his
creative friends. He painted poster portraits for artists Georgia O'Keeffe,
Arthur Dove, Charles Duncan, Marsden Hartley, John Marin and for the writers
Gertrude Stein, Eugene O'Neill, Wallace Stevens and Williams.
In 1927, Demuth started a series of seven panel paintings depicting factory
buildings in his hometown. He finished the last of the seven, After All in 1933,
and died two years later. Six of those paintings are highlighted in Chimneys and
Towers: Charles Demuth’s Late Paintings of Lancaster, a 2007 Amon Carter Museum
retrospective of his work, displayed in 2008 at the Whitney Museum of American
Art.
According to the exhibit notes from the Amon Carter show, Demuth's will left
many of his paintings to his friend Georgia O'Keeffe. Her strategic decisions
regarding which museums received these works cemented his reputation as a major
painter of the Precisionist school.
Personal life
Demuth suffered either an injury when he was four years old or may have had
polio or tuberculosis of the hip that left him with a marked limp and required
him to use a cane. He later developed diabetes and was one of the first people
in the United States to receive insulin. He spent most of his life in frail
health, and he died in Lancaster at the age 51 of complications from diabetes.
Charles used the Lafayette Baths as his favorite haunt. His 1918 homoerotic
self-portrait set in a Turkish bathhouse was likely set there.[2]
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