Sheeler was a versatile artist who moved easily between the media of painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, and film. For him, photography was not only a tool used to derive compositions for his paintings and drawings, but was also an independent art form that often preceded by several years his production of related paintings. In the case of The Open Door, drawn in 1932, Sheeler returned to a sequence of twelve photographs he had made about 1917 of his stone cottage in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. The house, built in 1768 by a Quaker settler, was used by Sheeler and his artist-friend Morton Schamberg as a summer and weekend studio between 1910 and 1918, when Schamberg died, and thereafter by Sheeler alone until 1926.
As in the photograph upon which this drawing is closely based, Sheeler presents a small corner interior occupied by two open doors, a darkened window, and a small mirror. The strong, rectilinear character of the house, with its wide floorboards, thick ceiling beams, and plank doors, is emphasized in the tightly cropped scene. The exquisite range of tones and textures achieved solely with black conté crayon attests to Sheeler’s mastery of the medium, which, he noted, was used “to see how much exactitude I could attain.”
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Artwork Details
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Title:The Open Door
Artist:Charles Sheeler (American, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1883–1965 Dobbs Ferry, New York)
Date:1932
Medium:Conté crayon on paper mounted on board
Dimensions:23 3/4 x 18 in. (60.3 x 45.7 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Edith and Milton Lowenthal Collection, Bequest of Edith Abrahamson Lowenthal, 1991
Accession Number:1992.24.7
Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right, in black crayon): Sheeler 1932
the artist, Ridgefield, Conn. and Irvington, N. Y. (1932–44; sold on October 14, 1944, through the Downtown Gallery, New York, to Lowenthal); Edith and Milton Lowenthal, New York (1944–his d. 1987); Edith Lowenthal, New York (1987–d. 1991; her bequest to MMA)
New York. Downtown Gallery. "American Drawings: Recent Work by Charles Sheeler, John Marin, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Charles Locke, Stuart Davis, Alexander Brook," November 6–17, 1934, no catalogue.
Cambridge, Mass. Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums. "Sheeler, Hopper & Burchfield," December 5–31, 1934, no catalogue.
Society of Arts and Crafts, Detroit. "An Exhibition of Paintings by Charles Burchfield and Charles Sheeler," January 16–February 2, 1935, brochure no. 33 (as "The Doorway," lent by the Downtown Gallery).
New York. Daylight Gallery at the Downtown Gallery. "American Art," March 30–May 10, 1937, unnum. checklist (as "The Doorway").
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Charles Sheeler: Paintings, Drawings, Photographs," October 4–November 1, 1939, no. 88 (lent by the Downtown Gallery, New York).
Northampton, Mass. Smith College Museum of Art. "American Art: Aspects of American Painting, 1900-1940," June 12–22, 1940, no. 24 (lent by the Downtown Gallery).
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Edith and Milton Lowenthal Collection," October 1–November 2, 1952, no. 95.
Minneapolis. Walker Art Center. "Edith and Milton Lowenthal Collection," November 28, 1952–January 17, 1953, no. 95.
New York. American Academy of Arts and Letters. "Exhibition of Works by Newly Elected Members and Recipients of Honors and Awards," May 25–June 17, 1962, no. 21.
New York. Downtown Gallery. "20th Century American Drawings," September 9–October 3, 1964, unnum. checklist (as "Open Door," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Milton Lowenthal).
Brooklyn Museum. "Modernist Art from the Edith and Milton Lowenthal Collection," March 21–May 10, 1981, no. 59.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Still Life: 1915–1950," February 1, 1995–January 28, 1996, no catalogue (on view until June 29, 1995).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Art: The Edith and Milton Lowenthal Collection," October 10, 1996–January 12, 1997, unnumbered cat. (p. 13; published in MMA Bulletin 54, summer 1996).
Cincinnati Art Museum. "Charles Sheeler in Doylestown: American Modernism and the Pennsylvania Tradition," December 19, 1997–March 1, 1998, no. 49.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Photography of Charles Sheeler," June 3–August 17, 2003, not in catalogue (unnumbered checklist for MMA venue).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Drawings (1900–1950): Selections from the Permanent Collection," October 25, 2005–April 23, 2006, no catalogue.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "Charles Sheeler: Across Media," May 7–August 27, 2006, no. 6.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Charles Sheeler: Across Media," October 7, 2006–January 7, 2007, no. 6.
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young. "Charles Sheeler: Across Media," February 10–May 6, 2007, no. 6.
de Young, San Francisco. "Cult of the Machine: Precisionism and American Art," March 24–August 12, 2018, no. 12.
Constance Rourke. Charles Sheeler: Artist in the American Tradition. New York, 1938, pp. 8, 159–60, ill. p. 138, locates it in the Downtown Gallery, New York.
Oliver W. Larkin. American Art: Aspects of American Painting, 1900-1940. Exh. cat., Smith College Museum of Art. Northampton, Mass., 1940, pp. 6, 13, no. 24.
J. Frank Dobie. "The Unveiling of a Self-Portrait: What Shall a Man Tell About His Life, And How, Are Autobiography's Dilemmas." New York Times (September 1, 1957), ill. sec. 7, p. 1.
Martin Friedman. Charles Sheeler. New York, 1975, pp. 91–92, ill. p. 98.
Sarah Faunce inThe Edith and Milton Lowenthal Collection. Exh. cat., Brooklyn Museum. New York, 1981, p. 52, no. 59, ill.
Carol Troyen inCharles Sheeler: Paintings and Drawings. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston, 1987, p. 25, fig. 21.
Lowery Stokes Sims in "Recent Acquisitions. A Selection: 1991–1992." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 50 (Fall 1992), p. 66, ill.
Lisa Mintz Messinger. "American Art: The Edith and Milton Lowenthal Collection." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 54 (Summer 1996), pp. 7, 13, 52, ill.
Karen Lucic. Charles Sheeler in Doylestown: American Modernism and the Pennsylvania Tradition. Exh. cat., Allentown Art Museum. Allentown, Pa., 1997, p. 108, no. 49, ill.
Charles Brock. Charles Sheeler: Across Media. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D. C., 2006, pp. 30–32, no. 6, ill. (color) pp. 20, 39.
Charles Sheeler (American, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1883–1965 Dobbs Ferry, New York)
ca. 1927
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