Charles Henry Buckius Demuth (November 8, 1883 – October 23, 1935) was an American painter who specialized in

watercolors Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

and turned to oils late in his career, developing a style of painting known as

Precisionism Precisionism was a modernist art movement that emerged in the United States after World War I. Influenced by Cubism, Purism, and Futurism, Precisionist artists reduced subjects to their essential geometric shapes, eliminated detail, and often u ...

. "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 Lancaster, ( ; pdc, Lengeschder) is a city in and the county seat of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is one of the oldest inland cities in the United States. With a population at the 2020 census of 58,039, it ranks 11th in population amon ...

. The home he shared with his mother is now the

Demuth Museum Demuth Museum in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States, is a museum dedicated to the paintings of Charles Demuth (1883–1935) located in his former studio and home at 120 East King Street. The museum offers a rotating view of a permanent collect ...

, which showcases his work. He graduated from Franklin & Marshall Academy before studying at

Drexel University Drexel University is a private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Art, S ...

and at Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. While he was a student at PAFA, he participated in a show at the academy, and also 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 The Académie Colarossi (1870–1930) was an art school in Paris founded in 1870 by the Italian model and sculptor Filippo Colarossi. It was originally located on the Île de la Cité, and it moved in 1879 to 10 rue de la Grande-Chaumière in the ...

and

Académie Julian The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number a ...

in Paris, where he became a part of the

avant garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or 'vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical De ...

art scene. The Parisian artistic community was accepting of Demuth's homosexuality. After his return to America, Demuth retained aspects of

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

in many of his works.

Early life

Charles Demuth was born on 8 November 1883 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In 1889, when Demuth was 6 years old, his family moved to an 18th-century house at 120 East King Street. In the colonial period, the house had been a tavern. Demuth's Tobacco Shop, owned and run by his family since 1770, was next door. Demuth lived at the King Street house with his mother, Augusta for the rest of his life. He maintained a small studio on the second floor. Throughout his career, Demuth remained deeply attached to Lancaster. The city's modest commercial and civic architecture was the subject of hundreds of his watercolors and paintings. His depictions of warehouses, factories and row houses imbue these ordinary structures (sometimes ironically) with a grandeur and glamor normally associated with cathedrals, palaces and temples. For example, his image of two Lancaster grain silos, titled ''

My Egypt ''My Egypt'' is a 1927 painting by the American artist Charles Demuth. It depicts a grain elevator from the artist's hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and is considered a "masterpiece" and "emblem" of the Precisionist art movement. Backgroun ...

'' (1927), invites the viewer to compare the massive volumetric forms to pharaonic monuments like the pyramids. In 1907 he painted his first self-portrait in oil. Demuth attended Franklin and Marshall College and later pursued graduate study in art in Philadelphia. Demuth either suffered an injury when he was four years old, or may have had polio or tuberculosis of the hip, leaving him with a marked

limp A limp is a type of asymmetric abnormality of the gait. Limping may be caused by pain, weakness, neuromuscular imbalance, or a skeletal deformity. The most common underlying cause of a painful limp is physical trauma; however, in the absen ...

and requiring him to use a cane. He later developed diabetes and was one of the first people in the United States to receive

insulin Insulin (, from Latin ''insula'', 'island') is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the ''INS'' gene. It is considered to be the main anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabolism o ...

as a treatment. Demuth pronounced his surname with emphasis upon the first syllable, earning him the nickname "Deem" among close friends. From 1909 onward, Demuth maintained a romantic relationship with Robert Evans Locher, an Art Deco interior decorator and stage designer.

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 Alfred Stieglitz (January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz was kno ...

and became a member of the Stieglitz group. In 1926, he had a one-man show at the Anderson Galleries and another at Intimate Gallery, the New York gallery run by Stieglitz. Demuth was introduced to modernism during trips to Europe between 1907 and 1921. On frequent trips to New York City, he encountered avant-garde styles and ideas, most notably Cubism, the influence of which is reflected in many of his works. His most famous painting, '' I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold,'' was inspired by his friend William Carlos Williams's poem "

The Great Figure ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

". Roberta Smith described the work in ''The New York Times'': "Demuth's famous visionary accounting of Williams, ''I Saw the Figure Five in Gold'', sa painting whose title and medallion-like arrangement of angled forms were both inspired by a verse the poet wrote after watching a fire engine streak past him on a rainy Manhattan street while waiting for Marsden Hartley, whose studio he was visiting, to answer his door." Describing its importance,

Judith H. Dobrzynski Judith Helen Dobrzynski (born March 8, 1949) is an American journalist and instructor in journalism.The Wall Street Journal, Judith H. Dobrzynski, "Where Paint and Poetry Meet" retrieved July 10, 2010
/ref> The work is one of 10 poster portraits Demuth intended to create to honor his creative friends. The six completed ones were in homage to Williams plus Georgia O'Keeffe, Arthur Dove,

Charles Duncan Charles Duncan may refer to: Politics and law * Charles T. Duncan (1838–1915), American lawyer and Virginia state judge * Charles Duncan (politician) (1865–1933), British politician and trade unionist * Charles Duncan Jr. (1926–2022), U.S. ...

John Marin John Marin (December 23, 1870 – October 2, 1953) was an early American modernist artist. He is known for his abstract landscapes and watercolors. Biography Marin was born in Rutherford, New Jersey. His mother died nine days after his birth, ...

and Bert Savoy. The others were planned for Marsden Hartley, Gertrude Stein, Eugene O'Neill and

Wallace Stevens Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...

. Painted during a period of recovery from illness, these paintings portray their respective painters and writers and performers through referential objects and language, as opposed to literal depictions. These works proved to be a challenge for critics. One reviewer described the works as having been made in “a code for which we have not the key.” Demuth, along with Georgia O'Keeffe and Charles Sheeler, was a major contributor to the

Precisionist Precisionism was a modernist art movement that emerged in the United States after World War I. Influenced by Cubism, Purism, and Futurism, Precisionist artists reduced subjects to their essential geometric shapes, eliminated detail, and often us ...

art movement, which began to evolve in America around 1915. Demuth's works often depicted a specific range of forms in a quasi-Cubist, sharply defined manner, a characteristic of Precisionism. Frequently occurring scenes within Demuth's works are urban and rural landscapes, often consisting of industrial features such as bridges, smoke stacks, and skyscrapers. Demuth's "Aucassin and Nicolette," which can be viewed below, is an exemplary work of Precisionist art. Notable features include the highly structured scene lacking figures, depiction of an industrial setting, and sharp linearity created by geometric figures with no hint of abstraction. Demuth's works of this nature have been perceived as ironic and

pessimistic Pessimism is a negative mental attitude in which an undesirable outcome is anticipated from a given situation. Pessimists tend to focus on the negatives of life in general. A common question asked to test for pessimism is "Is the glass half empt ...

in light of their subject matter. Demuth began a series of paintings in 1919, inspired by the architecture of Lancaster. In creating these works, Demuth opted not to use watercolors, instead created the works in oil and tempera. Additionally, these works are larger than many of his others. They possess a balance between

realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...

and abstraction. 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. Six of the paintings were 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 Georgia O'Keeffe. Her strategic decisions regarding which museums received these works cemented his reputation as a major painter of the Precisionist school.

Later years and death

Demuth, a gay artist, was a regular patron at the Lafayette Baths. His sexual exploits there are the subject of watercolors, including his 1918 homoerotic self-portrait set in a Turkish bathhouse. Demuth spent most of his life in frail health. By 1920, the effects of diabetes had begun to severely drain Demuth of artistic energy. He died at his residence in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania at the age 51 of complications from diabetes. He is buried at the Lancaster Cemetery.

Selected works

Image:Demuth_Charles_The_Jazz_Singer_1916.jpg, ''The Jazz Singer'' (1916) Image:Bermuda No. 2, The Schooner MET DP242074.jpg, ''

Bermuda No. 2, The Schooner ''Bermuda No. 2, The Schooner'' is an early 20th century drawing by American artist Charles Demuth. Done in watercolor and graphite on paper, the work depicts the ship Danish ship ''Elsa''. The drawing is in the collection of the Metropolitan Mus ...

'' (1917) Image:Demuth_Charles_Trees_and_Barns_Bermuda_1917.jpg, ''Trees and Barns Bermuda'' (1917) Image:Demuth_Charles_Turkish Bath with Self Portrait_1918.jpg, ''Turkish Bath with Self Portrait'' (1918) Image:Demuth_Charles_The Boat Ride from Sorrento.jpg, ''The Boat Ride from Sorrento'' (1919)''The Boat Ride from Sorrento'': Charles Demuth By Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.), 1950,

Andrew Carnduff Ritchie Andrew Carnduff Ritchie (1907–1978) was a Scottish-born American art historian specialising in British 18th-century sculpture, a professor, museum director and post-World War II ' Monuments Man'. He was the director of the Albright-Knox Art Ga ...

Charles Demuth, Andrew Carnduff Ritchie, Charles Demuth Image:Demuth_Charles_Wild_Orchids_1920.jpg, ''Wild Orchids'' (1920) Image:Demuth_Charles_Spring_1921.jpg, ''Spring'' (1921) Image:Demuth_Charles_Incense of a New Church, 1921.jpg, ''Incense of a New Church'' (1921) Image:Brooklyn Museum - Roofs and Steeple - Charles Demuth - overall.jpg, ''Roofs and Steeple'' (1921) Image:Demuth_Charles_Aucassiu_and_Nicolette_1921.jpg, ''Aucassin and Nicolette'' (1921) File:Study for Poster Portrait Marsden Hartley by Charles Demuth.jpeg, ''Study for Poster Portrait, Marsden Hartley'' (1921) (c. 1923–1924) File:Charles-Demuth-Sail-In-Two-Movements-1919.jpg, ''Sail: In Two Movements'', 1919 File:Charles Demuth - Love, Love, Love. Homage to Gertrude Stein - Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza 521(1973.56).jpg, Charles Demuth - ''Love Love Love'', 1928, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

References

External links

Demuth.org: The Demuth Museum website
— ''established to preserve and promote the art of Charles Demuth''
Demuth.org: "About the Artist: Charles Demuth"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Demuth, Charles Charles Demuth American Expressionist painters American watercolorists American landscape painters American modern painters Precisionism 1883 births 1935 deaths American gay artists LGBT people from Pennsylvania Painters from Pennsylvania American Figurative Expressionism Académie Colarossi alumni Académie Julian alumni Culture of Lancaster, Pennsylvania History of Lancaster, Pennsylvania Deaths from diabetes in the United States Artists from Lancaster, Pennsylvania 20th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American male artists 20th-century American LGBT people 19th-century American LGBT people