Charles Demuth
(November 8, 1883 - October 23, 1936) U.S.A.
Painter
 Born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Demuth is perhaps the best known for his urban and industrial subjects. But Demuth's work is really of the most interest to gay and lesbian historians. Mostly done in watercolor and pencil on paer, his work looks at a flourishing gay lifestyle, if not an actual subculture, taking place in the baths and apartments and on the beaches.
He was the only child of successful business people; they were financially secure so that Demuth never had to work for a living, although he was never wealthy. Demuth's health was frail; from an early age he suffered from lameness and as an adult from severe diabetes.
At sixteen, after a long, isolated adolescence, Demuth was sent to a prestigious private prep school, the Franklin and Marshall Academy, from which he was graduated in 1901. He remained at home for two more school years before enrolling at the Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and industry in Philadelphia, then he studied with Thomas Anshutz and W.M. Chase at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
 
As a young man Demuth made several trips to Europe to study. There he became part of the avant garde scene. He was attracted by the work of Marcel Duchamp and the Cubists. As he matured he moved gradually away from illustrative art. He executed a series of watercolors of flowers, circuses, and café scenes. Impressed by his abilities Alfred Stiglitz featured his works in his New York Gallery. Later in his career, Demuth began to paint advertisements and billboards into cityscapes.
 
Demuth created most of his art in his home where he worked in a small second floor studio of the rear wing, overlooking the garden. He lived at home with his parents. In his will he bequeathed his watercolors to his close friend Robert Locher, and all his other paintings to Georgia O'Keeffe. Among Demuth's best-known works are his poster portraits such as the tribute to the poet William Carlos Williams, "I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold."
 
Charles Demuth died of complications from diabetes, shortly before his fifty-second birthday. He helped channel modern European movements into American art and was a leading exponent of Precisionism. Less known are his pictures of flowers, Bermuda, and the gay navy scene.
 
|
