Demuth, Charles, 1883-1935, American watercolor painter, b. Lancaster, Pa. At the age of 20 he began his art study under William Chase at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 1907 and again in 1912, Demuth visited Europe. On returning to the United States he began a series of line-and-wash illustrations for works of Zola, Poe, and Henry James and made drawings of vaudeville performers. He is perhaps best known for his beautiful translucent flower and fruit studies in watercolor. Demuth was one of the first painters to draw inspiration from the geometric shapes of machines and modern technology. There are several works by him in the Art Institute, Chicago, and many in the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Ohio.

(born Nov. 8, 1883, Lancaster, Pa., U.S.—died Oct. 23, 1935, Lancaster) U.S. painter. He studied in Philadelphia and later in Europe. On his return he became an important channel for the transmission of modern European movements into American art. Best known as an exponent of Precisionism, he excelled at watercolour and executed an outstanding series of flowers, circuses, and café scenes. Later he incorporated advertisements and billboard lettering into hard-edged, abstract cityscapes. Among his well-known works are his so-called “poster portraits” such as I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold (1928), a symbolic portrait of the poet William Carlos Williams.

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(born Nov. 8, 1883, Lancaster, Pa., U.S.—died Oct. 23, 1935, Lancaster) U.S. painter. He studied in Philadelphia and later in Europe. On his return he became an important channel for the transmission of modern European movements into American art. Best known as an exponent of Precisionism, he excelled at watercolour and executed an outstanding series of flowers, circuses, and café scenes. Later he incorporated advertisements and billboard lettering into hard-edged, abstract cityscapes. Among his well-known works are his so-called “poster portraits” such as I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold (1928), a symbolic portrait of the poet William Carlos Williams.

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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.

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.

Selected works

Footnotes

Further reading

• Eiseman, A.L. (1982). Charles Demuth. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications.
• Fahlman, B. (1983). Pennsylvania modern : Charles Demuth of Lancaster. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art.
• Fahlman, B. (2007). Chimneys and towers : Charles Demuth's late paintings of Lancaster. Foth Worth, TX: Amon Carter Museum.
• Farnham, E. (1971). Charles Demuth; behind a laughing mask. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
• Frank, R.J. (1994). Charles Demuth poster portraits, 1923-1929. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery.
• Harnsberger, R.S. (1992). Ten precisionist artists : annotated bibliographies [Art Reference Collection no. 14]. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
• Haskell, B. (1987). Charles Demuth. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art.
• Kellner, B., ed. (2000). Letters of Charles Demuth, American artist, 1883-1935. Philadelphia, Temple University Press.
• Lampe, A.M. (2007). Demuth : out of the chateau : works from the Demuth Museum. Lancaster, PA: Demuth Museum.
• Weinberg, J. (1993). Speaking for vice : homosexuality in the art of Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, and the first American avante-garde. New Haven: Yale University Press.

External links

• Demuth Foundation