Charles Demuth
Trees and Barns (Bermuda)
1916
Scroll
Charles Demuth
Trees and Barns (Bermuda)
1916
Physical Qualities
Watercolor over graphite, Sheet: 253 x 355 mm. (9 15/16 x 14 in.)
Credit Line
Purchase Fund
Object Number
1950.49
Charles Demuth was profoundly inspired by Cézanne’s watercolors. A regular visitor to Stieglitz’s gallery 291, Demuth also took three trips to Europe during the first two decades of the twentieth century and saw Cézanne’s paintings firsthand, including those on view at Gertrude and Leo Stein’s apartment.
In 1917 Demuth followed Marsden Hartley to Bermuda, where he created his first distinctive works inspired by Cézanne. The French Cubist painter Albert Gleizes was also in Bermuda at the same time, and his influence can be seen in the fractured planes of the houses and trees in this composition. The integration of the precise geometric forms of island houses with the organic curves of the trees is reminiscent of Cézanne’s watercolors.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 1950; J.B. Neumann, NY; Barnes Foundation, Merion, PA
Cézanne and American Modernism
Emily Farnham, "Charles Demuth's Bermuda Landscapes," Art Journal 25, no, 2 (Winter 1965-1966), p. 131.
Stavitsky, Gail, ed., and Rothkopf, Katherine, ed. Cézanne and American Modernism. Montclair, NJ: Montclair Art Museum; Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art; New Haven: Yale University Press, c2009.
Inscribed: lower left in graphite: "C. Demuth 1917-"; by later hand, lower right in graphite: "Order 1148 $140 M--"
