The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Bermuda No. 1, Tree and House

The Roof Garden Commission: Imran Qureshi
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Bermuda No. 1, Tree and House

Charles Demuth (American, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 1883–1935 Lancaster, Pennsylvania)

Date:: 1917
Medium:: Watercolor, graphite, and cut-and-pasted paper on paper
Dimensions:: 10 x 13 7/8 in. (25.4 x 35.2 cm)
Classification:: Drawings
Credit Line:: Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949
Accession Number:: 49.70.55

This artwork is part of Stieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe

This artwork is not on display

Description

Demuth and Hartley rented rooms on the top floor of a well situated but inexpensive hotel on St. George's Island (Bermuda). Located on a hilltop, it afforded them charming views of the harbor and the island architecture. According to Hartley, they each planned "to get a room elsewhere to work in." In this complex picture, Demuth represents the setting as a series of receding registers. Starting with the gnarly tree in the foreground, he compresses the space to include a house with peaked roof, lush vegetation, water, rolling hills, and a tall tower. In 1924, Demuth gave this watercolor to Stieglitz, noting that "It has a small piece of paper pasted on it, -- over one of the roofs."
Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Signature: Signed and inscribed (lower center): C.D./Bermuda.
Exhibition History

"History of an American: Alfred Stieglitz, 291 and After", Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1944, cat. no. 283

"The Alfred Stieglitz Exhibition: His Photographs and Collection", The Museum of Modern Art, NY, June 11 - Aug. 31, 1947 (exhibition loan number 47.174)

"The Stieglitz Collection", Art Institute of Chicago, 1948

Montclair, New Jersey: The Montclair Art Museum. November 20, 1994 - January 22, 1995; Columbus, Ohio: Columbus Museum of Art, May 7 - July 4, 1995; Lincoln, Nebraska: Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, September 5 - November 5, 1995. ¦Precisionism in America 1915 - 1914: Reordering Reality¦, Exh. cat., Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Pulishers in association with The Montclair Art Museum. New York, 1994. cat. #109, p. 133.

"Charles Demuth," The Metropolitan Museum of Art (LAW, North Mezzanine), May 9 - August 31, 2003
References

Weber, Bruce. The Heart of the Matter: The Still Lifes of Marsden Hartley. Exhibition catalogue. NY: Berry Hill Galleries, Inc, 2003. Mentioned in text p. 35; illustrated in black and white fig. 27, p. 35