Charles
Demuth
Lancaster, PA
Charles Demuth was born on
November 8 in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania. When Charles was six,
his family moved to the home next
to the Demuth Tobacco Shop which
had been operated by his family
since 1770.
Demuth often went to
the farmers market to
buy fresh fruits and
vegetables for his still
life paintings
He would also do
paintings of flowers from
his garden.
Look at how he has
divided up the negative
space.
Circus performers
were another subject
that he loved to
paint
Demuth loved to
paint scenes from
Lancaster, the city
where he lived.
Notice how he uses
different points of
view in one painting.
This was a technique
used by artists who
worked in the Cubist
style.
This painting is
by another
famous Cubist
painter, Pablo
Picasso.
Charles Demuth
Pablo Picasso
How are they the same?
How are they different?
In the 1920’s,
Demuth was part of
a group of artists
called “Precisionists”.
They were interested
in buildings and
machinery as
subjects for art
The Great Figure Among the rain
and lights
I saw the figure 5
in gold
on a red
fire truck
moving
tense
unheeded
to gong clangs
siren howls
and wheels rumbling
through the dark city
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
Sour Grapes: A Book of Poems
Charles Demuth
died in 1935 at the
age of 51.
This is one of his last
paintings, entitled
“The Home of thee
Brave”.