Charles DemuthLancaster, 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.

How are they the same?How are they different?

Charles Demuth

Pablo Picasso

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 rainand lightsI saw the figure 5in goldon a redfire truckmovingtenseunheededto gong clangssiren howlsand wheels rumblingthrough 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”.