Demuth and Marsden 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."
Medium:Watercolor and graphite with collage of cut paper with watercolor and graphite on paper
Dimensions:10 in. × 13 15/16 in. (25.4 × 35.4 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949
Accession Number:49.70.55
Inscription: Signed and inscribed (lower center) in image, in graphite: C. D./ Bermuda.
the artist (1917–24; his gift in 1924 to Stieglitz); Alfred Stieglitz, New York (1924–d. 1946; his estate, 1946–49; gift to MMA)
Washington, D. C. Phillips Memorial Gallery. "Charles Demuth: Exhibition of Watercolors and Oil Paintings," May 3–25, 1942, brochure no. 5 (lent by An American Place).
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "History of an American, Alfred Stieglitz: '291' and After, Selections from the Stieglitz Collection," July 1–November 1, 1944, no. 283.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Alfred Stieglitz Exhibition: His Collection," June 10–August 31, 1947, no catalogue (checklist no. 47.174).
Art Institute of Chicago. "Alfred Stieglitz: His Photographs and His Collection," February 2–29, 1948, no catalogue.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Charles Demuth," March 7–June 11, 1950, no. 56.
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. 197.
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. 42 (as undated).
University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley. "Charles Demuth: The Mechanical Encrusted on the Living," November 22, 1971–January 3, 1972, no. 42.
Washington, D. C. Phillips Collection. "Charles Demuth: The Mechanical Encrusted on the Living," January 19–February 29, 1972, no. 42.
Utica, N. Y. Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute. "Charles Demuth: The Mechanical Encrusted on the Living," March 19–April 16, 1972, no. 42.
New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. "Twentieth-Century American Drawing: Three Avant-Garde Generations," January 23–March 21, 1976, no. 28.
Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden. "Amerikanische Zeichner des 20.Jahrhunderts—Drei Generationen von der Armory Show bis heute," May 27–July 11, 1976, no. 22.
Seattle Art Museum. "American Watercolors from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Selection 1," February 7–March 31, 1991, no. 145.
Tulsa. Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art. "American Watercolors from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Selection 1," April 20–June 15, 1991, no. 145.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Watercolors from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 15–December 10, 1991, no. 145.
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio. "Precisionism in America, 1915–1941: Reordering Reality," May 7–July 4, 1995, no. 109.
Lincoln, Neb. Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery. "Precisionism in America, 1915–1941: Reordering Reality," September 5–November 5, 1995, no. 109.
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. 53.
Emily Farnham. "Charles Demuth: His Life, Psychology, and Works." PhD diss., Ohio State University, Columbus, 1959, vol. 2, pp. xiii, 500, 789, no. 235, fig. 31.
Henry Geldzahler. American Painting in the Twentieth Century. New York, 1965, p. 134, ill.
Emily Farnham. "Charles Demuth's Bermuda Landscapes." Art Journal 25 (Winter 1965-66), p. 135, fig. 9.
Alvord L. Eiseman. "A Study of the Development of an Artist: Charles Demuth." PhD diss., New York University, School of Education, 1974, pp. 163–64, no. 84, ill.
Victor Koshkin-Youritzin inAmerican Watercolors from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Seattle Art Museum. New York, 1991, pp. 31–32, ill. (detail), colorpl. 145.
Bruce Kellner, ed. Letters of Charles Demuth, American Artist, 1883–1935. Philadelphia, 2000, pp. 59–60.
Bruce Weber. The Heart of the Matter: The Still Lifes of Marsden Hartley. Exh. cat., Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc. New York, 2003, p. 35, fig. 27.
Mark D. Mitchell. "Reflections: Charles Demuth and Georgia O'Keeffe." Magazine Antiques 174 (November 2008), p. 123, fig. 7 (color).
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. 96, 256, no. 53, 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. 96.
Abra Levenson. "Figures and Things: Charles Demuth, 1908–1935." PhD diss., Princeton University, 2018, p. 115, fig. 134, calls it "Bermuda Landscape #1: Tree and House".
Charles Demuth (American, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 1883–1935 Lancaster, Pennsylvania)
1916
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