Between 1924 and 1929, Demuth created a number of still life compositions with fruits and vegetables. These late watercolors, including floral studies such as The Met's Red Poppies (1983.40), present the still life elements more monumentally than ever before, enlarging their simple forms to fill large sheets of otherwise blank paper. In such fruit and vegetable studies, he seems newly concerned with volume and reflected light off these rounded surfaces. It is interesting to note that during these same years Georgia O'Keeffe introduced her own enormous flower paintings, and Demuth created his series of bold poster portraits that frequently used fruits, vegetables, and plants as attributes of the honoree.
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Inscription: Signed, dated and inscribed (lower right in image, in graphite): Lancaster Pa. C. Demuth '29
the artist (1929; to Stieglitz); Alfred Stieglitz, New York (sold, possibly in 1929, to Goodwin); Philip L. Goodwin, New York (returned, possibly in 1929, in exchange for "Still Life: Green Pears" to Stieglitz); Alfred Stieglitz, New York (possibly 1929–d. 1946; his estate, 1946–49; gift to MMA)
Intimate Gallery, New York. "Charles Demuth: Five Paintings," April 29–May 18, 1929, brochure no. 5 (as "Cabbage and Rhubarb").
Minneapolis. University Art Gallery, University of Minnesota. "5 Painters (Demuth, Dove, Hartley, Marin, O'Keeffe)," January 27–February 14, 1937, no. 3.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Charles Demuth Memorial Exhibition," December 15, 1937–January 16, 1938, no. 117 (lent by Mr. Alfred Stieglitz).
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "History of an American, Alfred Stieglitz: '291' and After, Selections from the Stieglitz Collection," July 1–November 1, 1944, no. 300.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Alfred Stieglitz Exhibition: His Collection," June 10–August 31, 1947, no catalogue (checklist no. 18).
Art Institute of Chicago. "Alfred Stieglitz: His Photographs and His Collection," February 2–29, 1948, no catalogue (checklist no. 63).
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Charles Demuth," March 7–June 11, 1950, no. 147.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "200 Years of Watercolor Painting in America," December 8, 1966–January 29, 1967, no. 202.
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. 111.
University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley. "Charles Demuth: The Mechanical Encrusted on the Living," November 22, 1971–January 3, 1972, no. 111.
Washington, D. C. Phillips Collection. "Charles Demuth: The Mechanical Encrusted on the Living," January 19–February 29, 1972, no. 111.
Utica, N. Y. Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute. "Charles Demuth: The Mechanical Encrusted on the Living," March 19–April 16, 1972, no. 111.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Pennsylvania Modern: Charles Demuth of Lancaster," July 16–September 11, 1983, no. 32.
Lancaster, Penn. Heritage Center of Lancaster County. "Pennsylvania Modern: Charles Demuth of Lancaster," October 1–November 13, 1983, no. 32.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Charles Demuth," October 15, 1987–January 17, 1988, unnumbered cat. (pl. 113).
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. 61.
"New York Season." Art Digest 3 (May 1, 1929), pp. 17–18.
"Exhibitions in the New York Galleries: Charles Demuth, Intimate Gallery." Art News 27 (May 4, 1929), p. 14.
Royal Cortissoz. "Three Exhibitions: Georg Kolbe, Arthur B. Davies and Charles Demuth." New York Herald Tribune (May 5, 1929), p. 10.
Edward Alden Jewell. "Now It Can Be Told. Paintings by Demuth." New York Times (May 5, 1929), p. 124.
Margaret Breuning. "Group Exhibitions Feature the Week and Indicate Closing of Art Season. Other Art Events." New York Evening Post (May 11, 1929), section 4, p. 5.
Emily Farnham. "Charles Demuth: His Life, Psychology, and Works." PhD diss., Ohio State University, Columbus, 1959, vol. 2, pp. 624–25, no. 534, vol. 3, pp. xx, 891, fig. 138.
Albert Ten Eyck Gardner. History of Water Color Painting in America. New York, 1966, p. 126, pl. 111.
American Artist 33 (Summer 1969), p. 42, ill.
George Heard Hamilton. "The Alfred Stieglitz Collection." Metropolitan Museum Journal 3 (1970), pp. 386, 388–89, fig. 19.
Alvord L. Eiseman. "A Study of the Development of an Artist: Charles Demuth." PhD diss., New York University, School of Education, 1974, p. 421, fig. 252.
Barbara Haskell. Charles Demuth. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 1987, p. 191 n. 32, colorpl. 113.
Helen A. Cooper. "The Watercolors of Charles Demuth." Magazine Antiques 133 (January 1988), colorpl. XII.
Charles Brock in Sarah Greenough. Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D. C., 2000, pp. 370, 522 n. 29.
Betsy Fahlman. Chimneys and Towers: Charles Demuth's Late Paintings of Lancaster. Exh. cat., Amon Carter Museum. Fort Worth, 2007, p. 91.
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. 104, 258, no. 61, ill. (color).
Rachel Mustalish 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, p. 104.
Charles Demuth (American, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 1883–1935 Lancaster, Pennsylvania)
ca. 1926
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