Wednesday 2 June 2021

Charles Sheeler - part 2


Charles Sheeler (1883 - 1965) was born in Philadelphia. His education included instruction in industrial drawing and the applied arts at the School of Industrial Art in Philadelphia (1900–1903), followed by a traditional training in drawing and painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1903–6). He found early success as a painter and exhibited at the Macbeth Gallery in 1908. He realised that he would not be able to make a living with Modernist painting. Instead, he took up commercial photography, focusing particularly on architectural subjects. Sheeler painted using a technique that complemented his photography and has been described as “quasi-photographic". He was a self-proclaimed Precisionist, a term that emphasised the linear precision he employed in his depictions. As in his photographic works, his subjects were generally material things such as machinery and structures.

This is part 2 of 5-part series on the works of Charles Sheeler.

For more biographical notes and for earlier works see part 1 also. 

1918–1919, printed ca.1930 The Lily, Mt. Kisco
gelatin silver print 23.6 x 19.4 cm (image)
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas

1920 Church Street El 
gelatin silver print 15.6 x 18.3 cm

1920 Church Street El
oil on canvas 60 x 67.5 cm
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

1920 New York
graphite on cream Japanese vellum 50.5 x 33 cm
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

1920 Nude
graphite on paper 11.4 x 15.2 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

1920 Tiger Lilies
graphite on ivory wove paper 26.8 x 37 cm
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

c1920 Baroness Elsa’s “Portrait of Duchamp"
gelatin silver print 25.4 x 20.3 cm
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick

c1920 Nude Torso
graphite and black pencil, with stumping and erasing, on ivory wove paper 11.5 x 16 cm
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

c1920 Untitled (Yachting)
pencil and conte crayon on paper 16.5 x 28.2 cm

1920 Manhatta

In 1920, Sheeler collaborated with fellow photographer Paul Strand on the short film Manhatta, presenting dramatic views of lower Manhattan. Abstract stills from the 35mm film, which was shot from steep angles, are presented alongside larger prints of Sheeler’s cinematic images of New York City, produced shortly after Manhatta—which he used as source material for his paintings.


1920 Manhatta - Rooftops
gelatin silver print
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
© 2020 The Lane Collection

1920 Manhatta - New York, Buildings in Shadows and Smoke
gelatin silver print
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA


1920 Manhatta – Ferry Docking
gelatin silver print
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA
© 2020 The Lane Collection

1920 Manhatta – Through a Balustrade
gelatin silver print
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
© The Lane Collection

1920 New York, Buildings in Shadows and Smoke
gelatin silver print
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
© The Lane Collection

1921 Figure of a Child
gelatin silver print 23.8 x 14.3 cm (image)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

c1921 The Young Boy
gelatin silver print 23.7 x 15.4 cm (image)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1922 Pertaining to Yachts and Yachting
oil on canvas 50.8 x 61.1 cm 
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

1922 Pertaining to Yachts and Yachting
wax crayon and pencil on paper 48.6 x 61.1 cm
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1922 Skyscrapers
oil on canvas 50.8 x 33 cm
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

1922 Suspended Forms (Still Life)
charcoal, black and brown chalk, watercolour, and oil crayon on paper 48.3 x 38.6 cm
Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri

1922 Suspended Forms
tempera and Conté crayon on paper 50.8 x 39.3 cm

1922 Tulips and Etruscan Vase
pencil on paper 54 x 40.5 cm
MoMA, New York

1922 Untitled
gelatin silver print 19.5 x 24.5 cm (image)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1923 Bucks County Barn
tempera, charcoal pencil, and graphite pencil on paper 49.8 x 66 cm
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1923 Bucks County Barn
tempera, charcoal pencil, and graphite pencil on paper 49.8 x 66 cm
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1923 Geraniums, Pots, Spaces
black and red Conté crayon, with coloured pencils and stumped charcoal, over graphite, on ivory laid paper 61.6 x 49 cm
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

1923 Installation view of Whitney Studio Club Exhibition "Recent Paintings by Pablo Picasso and Negro Sculpture"
gelatin silver print 18.9 x 23.8 cm
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1923 Installation view of Whitney Studio Club Exhibition "Recent Paintings by Pablo Picasso and Negro Sculpture"
gelatin silver print 18.9 x 23.8 cm
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1923 Self-Portrait
conté crayon, gouache, and pencil on paper 50.1 x 65.2 cm
MoMA, New York

1924 Amaryllis
pastel on paper 55.5 x 68.6 cm
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

1924 Roses
lithograph 27.9 x 23.5 cm 
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

1924 Yachts
lithograph 20 x 24.9 cm (image)
MoMA, New York

c1924 Self-Portrait
pastel and charcoal on paper 61 x 48.4 cm
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

c1924 Vermont Landscape
opaque watercolor, (tempera?), wax crayon, pastel, charcoal, graphite, scratching 24.7 x 19.2 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

1925 Lady of the Sixties
oil on canvas 61.2 x 33.2 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

1925 Pennsylvania Landscape
oil on canvas 25.4 x 30.6 cm 
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

1925 Still Life
oil on canvas 30.5 x 25.4 cm

1925 Yellow Iris
oil on canvas 61 x 45.7 cm

1925-26 Tulips
oil on canvas 76.2 x 50.8 cm

c1925 Figure of a Child by William Zorach
toned gelatin silver print 23 x 13.9 cm
Smithsonian American Art Museum

c1925 Peaches in a Bowl
oil on canvas 25 x 20.3 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

1926 Aldous Huxley
gelatin silver print 25.4 x 20.4 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

1926 Aldous Huxley
gelatin silver print

1926 Boxer Georges Carpentier demonstrates the Charleston
gelatin silver print

1926 Boxer Georges Carpentier demonstrates the Charleston
gelatin silver print

1926 Boxer Georges Carpentier demonstrates the Charleston
gelatin silver print

1926 Delmonico Building
lithograph 24.8 x 17 cm (image)
MoMA, New York

1926 Interior
gelatin silver print 22.8 x 15.1 cm 
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

1926 Interior
oil and fabricated chalk on linen 84.1 x 56.2 cm
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

c1926 Geranium
oil on linen 81.4 x 66.2 cm
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1927 Accessories for travel by Motor
gelatin silver print 19.7 x 24.5 cm

1927 Spring Interior
oil on canvas 76.2 x 63.8 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA













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