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
BMA, "The Cubist Generation: Prints, Drawings, and Photographs from the Museum Collection," 18 October 1995 - 21 January 1996.
McKissick Museums, The University of South Carolina, "Georgia O'Keeffe and her Circle," 20 August - 26 September 1980, cat 15.
Jay Fisher, BMA, "American Art 1900-1930: Paintings and Works on Paper from the BMA Collection," 5 September - 22 October, 1978.
BMA, "Four Thousand Years of Modern Art," 27 November 1956 – 13 January 1957.
Gail Stavitsky, Montclair Art Museum and Katherine Rothkopf, The Baltimore Museum of Art (co-organizers), "Cézanne and American Modernism"; Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ, September 13, 2009-January 3, 2010; The Baltimore Museum of Art, February 14, 2010-May 23, 2010; Phoenix Art Museum, June 26, 2010-September 26, 2010.
McKissick Museums, The University of South Carolina, "Georgia O'Keeffe and her Circle," 20 August - 26 September 1980, cat 15.
Jay Fisher, BMA, "American Art 1900-1930: Paintings and Works on Paper from the BMA Collection," 5 September - 22 October, 1978.
BMA, "Four Thousand Years of Modern Art," 27 November 1956 – 13 January 1957.
Gail Stavitsky, Montclair Art Museum and Katherine Rothkopf, The Baltimore Museum of Art (co-organizers), "Cézanne and American Modernism"; Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ, September 13, 2009-January 3, 2010; The Baltimore Museum of Art, February 14, 2010-May 23, 2010; Phoenix Art Museum, June 26, 2010-September 26, 2010.
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--"
