While in Bermuda, Demuth expanded upon the Cubo-Futurist style that he had begun to experiment with a few months earlier in Provincetown, Massachusetts (where Marsden Hartley also summered). The presence of the French Cubist, Albert Gleizes, in Bermuda that winter may have further inspired his explorations in this direction, resulting in a number of compositions made up of multiple intersecting lines and planes. The triangular rays that fill this sheet define the three masts, sails, and hull of a large ship bearing a Danish flag. The ship, Elsa, was docked in St. George for repairs during the winter of 1916–17, and would have been an impressive sight as it measured 190 feet long and 37 feet wide, had two decks, and a weight of 1236 tons. Its image inspired at least three of Hartley's Bermuda paintings from 1917.
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Inscription: Signed and dated (lower left, in graphite): C. Demuth/ 1917–
the artist (from 1917; to Stieglitz); Alfred Stieglitz, New York (by 1935–d. 1946; his estate, 1946–49; gift to MMA)
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "History of an American, Alfred Stieglitz: '291' and After, Selections from the Stieglitz Collection," July 1–November 1, 1944, no. 284.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Alfred Stieglitz Exhibition: His Collection," June 10–August 31, 1947, no catalogue (checklist no. 12).
Art Institute of Chicago. "Alfred Stieglitz: His Photographs and His Collection," February 2–29, 1948, no catalogue (checklist no. 132).
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Charles Demuth," March 7–June 11, 1950, no. 57.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "20th Century Painters: A Special Exhibition of Oils, Water Colors and Drawings Selected from the Collections of American Art in the Metropolitan Museum," June 16–October 29, 1950, unnum. brochure (p. 14).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Three Centuries of American Painting," April 9–October 17, 1965, unnum. checklist.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "200 Years of Watercolor Painting in America," December 8, 1966–January 29, 1967, no. 198.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Paintings, Drawings and Watercolors from the Museum's Collections," October 1–December 7, 1969, no catalogue.
Art Galleries, University of California, Santa Barbara. "Charles Demuth: The Mechanical Encrusted on the Living," October 5– November 14, 1971, no. 43.
University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley. "Charles Demuth: The Mechanical Encrusted on the Living," November 22, 1971–January 3, 1972, no. 43.
Washington, D. C. Phillips Collection. "Charles Demuth: The Mechanical Encrusted on the Living," January 19–February 29, 1972, no. 43.
Utica, N. Y. Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute. "Charles Demuth: The Mechanical Encrusted on the Living," March 19–April 16, 1972, no. 43.
New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. "Twentieth-Century American Drawing: Three Avant-Garde Generations," January 23–March 21, 1976, no. 29.
Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden. "Amerikanische Zeichner des 20.Jahrhunderts—Drei Generationen von der Armory Show bis heute," May 27–July 11, 1976.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Charles Demuth," October 15, 1987–January 17, 1988, unnumbered cat. (pl. 55).
Denver Art Museum. "American Watercolors from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Selection 2," February 2–March 31, 1991, no. 146.
Norfolk. Chrysler Museum. "American Watercolors from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Selection 2," May 9–July 7, 1991, no. 146.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Watercolors from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 15–December 10, 1991, no. 146.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Charles Demuth," May 9–August 31, 2003, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Stieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe," October 13, 2011–January 2, 2012, no. 54.
Robert M. Coates. "The Art Galleries: Charles Demuth." New Yorker (March 18, 1950), p. 58.
Emily Farnham. "Charles Demuth: His Life, Psychology, and Works." PhD diss., Ohio State University, Columbus, 1959, vol. 2, pp. xiii, 501, 789, no. 236, fig. 32.
Henry Geldzahler. American Painting in the Twentieth Century. New York, 1965, pp. 134, 143, ill.
Albert Ten Eyck Gardner. History of Water Color Painting in America. New York, 1966, p. 129, pl. 114.
H. H. Arnason. History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture. New York, [1968], p. 415, fig. 673.
Alvord L. Eiseman. "A Study of the Development of an Artist: Charles Demuth." PhD diss., New York University, School of Education, 1974, p. 171, fig. 90, ill. p. 170.
Barbara Haskell. Charles Demuth. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 1987, pp. 126–27, colorpl. 55.
Victor Koshkin-Youritzin inAmerican Watercolors from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Seattle Art Museum. New York, 1991, p. 31.
Stephen Rubin inAmerican Watercolors from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., AFA Circulating Exhibition. New York, 1991, p. 189, fig. 146 (color).
H. H. Arnason. History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Photography. Ed. Marla F. Prather and Daniel Wheeler. Rev. 4th ed. (1st ed., 1968). New York, 1998, pp. 419–20, pl. 482.
Lisa Mintz Messinger inStieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Lisa Mintz Messinger. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2011, pp. 97, 256, no. 54, ill. (color).
Abra Levenson. "Figures and Things: Charles Demuth, 1908–1935." PhD diss., Princeton University, 2018, p. 31, fig. 28.
Charles Demuth (American, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 1883–1935 Lancaster, Pennsylvania)
1920
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