Charles Demuth
Tree Forms Bermuda

ArtistAmerican, 1883–1935
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Tree Forms Bermuda
  • Landscape with Pink Pagoda (Bermuda Landscape)
Date1916
MediumWatercolor over graphite on wove paper
DimensionsSheet: 9 3/4 × 13 in. (24.7 × 33 cm)
Frame: 21 × 25 in. (53.3 × 63.5 cm)
Credit LineThe Alice C. Simkins Collection, gift of Alice C. Simkins and museum purchase funded by the John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation
Object number2016.315.A,.B
Non exposé

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Description

Charles Demuth spent the winter of 1916–17 in Bermuda, where he worked exclusively in watercolor. In both "Tree Forms" and its reverse, "Landscape with Pink Pagoda (Bermuda Landscape)," Demuth established his signature style by laying down delicate color washes, which he then blotted dry in order to create subtle gradations in his newly tropical palette.

Convinced of the importance of this body of work, Demuth later recounted: “John Marin and I drew our inspiration from the same source, French modernism. He brought his up in buckets and spilt much along the way. I dipped mine out with a teaspoon, but I never spilt a drop.”


ProvenanceThe artist; [The Downtown Gallery, New York]; Mrs. Van Wyck Brooks, New York; given to her son, John Saltonstall, New York; [Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York]; The Alice C. Simkins Collection, San Antonio, November 15, 1995; to MFAH, 2016.
Exhibition History"Correspondences: European and American Affinities," Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York, January 26–March 9, 1985.

"Charles Demuth," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 14, 1987–January 17, 1988 (traveled to Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Columbus Museum of Art, OH, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art).

"American Modernists: The Paris Experience," Lehman College Art Gallery, The Bronx, NY, November 1–December 15, 1989.

"The Pioneering Decade: 1910-1920," Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York, November 16, 1992–January 9, 1993.

"Charles Daniel and The Daniel Gallery," Zabriskie Gallery, New York, December 22, 1993–February 12, 1994 (illustrated in catalog).

"12 Americans," Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York, April 16–June 4, 1994.

"The American Watercolor," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 25–May 14, 2000.

“American Modern: Works from the Collection of Alice C. Simkins,” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, April 15–July 19, 2015.

"The Rise of Modernism: Europe and America," The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Aug. 20, 2021 - Jan. 2, 2022. [Second Installation/Light-Sensitive Rotation: Kinder Building 207: No Catalog]
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Recto: Signed and dated in graphite, bottom left corner: C. Demuth / 1916 [cursive]
Verso: Inscribed in graphite, top left corner: X
Verso: Inscribed in graphite, lower center: green D - / Gray - / Gray / violet / Gray / White / Rose / Red / R / R [cursive]
Recto: Signed and dated in graphite, bottom left corner: C. Demuth / 1916 [cursive]
Verso: [none]
Recto: [none]
Verso: [none]
Catalogue raisonnéSimpson, Marc, "The Charles Demuth Catalogue Raisonné Project of Alvord L. Eiseman and The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco" (San Francisco: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1999), no. 24 (recto) and no. 24A (verso).

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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