Tulips

ca. 1926

Not on view

This unfinished sheet shows Demuth's working process very clearly. First, sketching-in lightly the general outlines of the tulips and leaves with pencil, he then fills in the lines with his exquisite watercolor technique. Pooling, blotting, and brushing the colors on in both thin and opaque washes, he meticulously builds up the composition section by section, leaving the pencil lines as a visible understructure. In a letter to Stieglitz of 1923, Demuth explained his preference for watercolor painting: "I've only painted in water-colour; the strain is greater, but, I don't have to return and fuss if it goes bad as one always does in oil or tempera."

Artwork Details

Object Information

Overview

Provenance

Exhibition History

Title: Tulips
Artist: Charles Demuth (American, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 1883–1935 Lancaster, Pennsylvania)
Date: ca. 1926
Medium: Watercolor and graphite on paper
Dimensions: 14 × 10 in. (35.6 × 25.4 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Irwin R. Berman, 1977
Object Number: 1977.137.2
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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Still-Life with a Watermelon and Pomegranates, Paul Cézanne French, Watercolor over graphite on laid paper — Still-Life with a Watermelon and Pomegranates
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Yellow and Blue, Charles Demuth American, Watercolor on paper — Yellow and Blue
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Necklace, Meta Overbeck American, Gold, emeralds, Montana sapphires, topazes, enamel, American — Necklace
Meta Overbeck
Louis C. Tiffany
Manufacturer Tiffany & Co.
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