Demuth, Charles

Demuth, Charles dāˈmo͞oth [key], 1883–1935, American watercolor painter, b. Lancaster, Pa. At the age of 20 he began his art study under William Chase at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 1907 and again in 1912, Demuth visited Europe. On returning to the United States he began a series of line-and-wash illustrations for works of Zola, Poe, and Henry James and made drawings of vaudeville performers. He is perhaps best known for his beautiful translucent flower and fruit studies in watercolor. Demuth was one of the first painters to draw inspiration from the geometric shapes of machines and modern technology. There are several works by him in the Art Institute, Chicago, and many in the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Ohio.

See biography by E. Farnham (1971) and A. L. Eiseman (1986).

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