pre WW II
North American Art

Pre-World War II
North American Art

Charles Demuth

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 Charles Demuth

born: Lancaster, Penn.; 9 November 1883
died: Lancaster, Penn.; 23 October 1935

He was born in a Lancaster house on North Lime Street at age 7, he and his family moved to the King Street home where he spent most of his lifetime. He was the only child of successful business people; they were financially secure so that Demuth never had to work for a living, although he was never wealthy.

Demuth's health was frail; from an early age he suffered from lameness and as an adult from severe diabetes.

At sixteen, after a long, isolated adolescence, Demuth was sent to a prestigious private prep school, the Franklin and Marshall Academy, from which he was graduated in 1901. He remained at home for two more school years before enrolling at the Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and industry in Philadelphia, then he studied with Thomas Anshutz and W.M. Chase at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

As a young man Demuth made several trips to Europe to study. There he became part of the avant garde scene. He was attracted by the work of Marcel Duchamp and the Cubists.

As he matured he moved gradually away from illustrative art. He executed a series of watercolors of flowers, circuses, and café scenes. Impressed by his abilities Alfred Stiglitz featured his works in his New York Gallery. Later in his career, Demuth began to paint advertisements and billboards into such cityscapes as his "Buildings, Lancaster" (1930), in which bold, commercial lettering is complemented by the severely hard-edged abstraction of buildings.

Demuth created most of his art in his home where he worked in a small second floor studio of the rear wing, overlooking the garden. He lived at home with his parents. In his will he bequeathed his watercolors to his close friend Robert Locher, and all his other paintings to Georgia O'Keeffe.

Among Demuth's best-known works are his poster portraits such as the tribute to the poet William Carlos Williams, "I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold." See picture below.

Charles Demuth died of complications from diabetes in 1935, shortly before his fifty-second birthday. He helped channel modern European movements into American art and was a leading exponent of Precisionism. Less known are his pictures of flowers, Bermuda, and the gay navy scene.

Modern Conveniences 1921	Aucassin and Nicolette 1921	Lancaster Buildings
My Egypt	I saw the Figure 5 in Gold 1928	Incense of a new Church
Acrobats 1919	Self Portrait 1907 The Demuth Foundation Lancaster, PA, US	Vaudeville Musicians

Still Life with Spoon 1927	Poppies	Peaches 1923
Flowers and Sage 1933	Cineraria 1923	Flower Study No. 1 Cyclamen and Hyacinth 1923
Red and Yellow Gladioli 1928	Apples	Apples with a Green Glass
Bermuda House and Barn 1917

Three Sailors Dancing 1917	Turkish Bath 1915
Two Sailors 1930	Three Sailors at the Beach 1917
Distinguished Air 1930

pre WW II
North American Art