Scofield Thayer, the donor of this work, was not only an avid collector of modern art between 1919 and 1924, but he was also the editor and co-owner of the literary magazine, the Dial, which published the most avant-garde writers and artists of the day. He purchased this picture in 1921 after corresponding with Demuth, who wrote back: "If you feel sure that money and a canvas of mine can 'talk' (I myself have found them so unrelated), at the same pitch, -- well then dear Mr. Thayer, I don't see the way out, and accept your, was it, 'outrageous proposal'." Pictured in the center of this composition is the steeple of the old Center Methodist Episcopal Church in Provincetown, Massachusetts (now the Provincetown Public Library). Demuth's Precisionist use of ruled lines, geometric forms, and crossing beams of light, is typical of his architectural paintings and drawings from the 1920s, which more frequently depicted views of the houses, churches, and factories around his hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
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Medium:Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on cardboard
Dimensions:24 × 20 in. (61 × 50.8 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982
Accession Number:1984.433.156
Inscription: Signed and dated (lower left): C. Demuth 1920; inscribed (lower right): Provincetown, Mass
the artist (1920–21; sold in 1921 to Thayer); Scofield Thayer, New York (1921–d. 1982; on extended loan to the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Mass., as part of the Dial Collection, 1931–82; his bequest to MMA)
New York. Daniel Gallery. "Arrangements of the American Landscape Forms by Charles Demuth," December 1920.
New York. Montross Gallery. "Original Paintings, Drawings, and Engravings Being Exhibited with the Dial Folio 'Living Art'," January 26–February 14, 1924, no catalogue (typed checklist no. 8).
Rochester, N. Y. Memorial Art Gallery. "The Dial Portfolio of "Living Art"," February–March 1924, no. 70.
Worcester Art Museum. "Exhibition of the Dial Collection of Paintings, Engravings, and Drawings by Contemporary Artists," March 5–30, 1924, no. 7.
Northampton, Mass. Hillyer Art Gallery, Smith College. "The Dial Collection," May 1924, no catalogue.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Charles Demuth Memorial Exhibition," December 15, 1937–January 16, 1938, no. 68 (lent by Worcester Art Museum).
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "A History of American Watercolor Painting," January 27–February 25, 1942, no. 192 (lent by Anonymous Loan from the Worcester Art Museum).
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Charles Demuth," March 7–June 11, 1950, no. 105 (lent anonymously through the courtesy of the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Mass.).
Philadelphia. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. "The One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition," January 15–March 13, 1955, no. 233 (lent anonymously through The Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Mass.).
University Park. Pennsylvania State University. Mineral Industries Gallery. "Centennial Exhibition: Pennsylvania Painters," October 7–November 6, 1955, no. 45 (lent anonymously through Worcester Art Museum).
Worcester Art Museum. "The Dial and the Dial Collection," April 30–September 8, 1959, no. 22.
New York. Downtown Gallery. "The Dial and the Dial Collection: A Special Loan Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture & Graphics by Thirty American Artists," September 22–October 17, 1959, no. 8.
Worcester Art Museum. "Selections from the Dial Collection," November 13–30, 1965, no catalogue.
Worcester Art Museum. "The Dial Revisited," June 29–August 22, 1971, no catalogue.
Worcester Art Museum. "'The Dial': Arts and Letters in the 1920s," March 7–May 10, 1981, no. 31.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Charles Demuth," October 15, 1987–January 17, 1988, unnumbered cat. (pl. 59).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "60 Drawings: Recent Acquisitions," October 23, 1990–January 15, 1991, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings: Additions to the Collection," May 23–September 29, 1991, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Charles Demuth," May 9–August 31, 2003, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Drawings (1900–1950): Selections from the Permanent Collection," October 25, 2005–April 23, 2006, no catalogue.
"The World of Art: Russian and American Paintings and a Group of Etchings." New York Times (December 19, 1920), p. BR11, ill., as "New England".
Scofield Thayer. Living Art: Twenty Facsimile Reproductions after Paintings, Drawings and Engravings and Ten Photographs after Sculpture by Contemporary Artists. New York, 1923, paintings section, colorpl. 8.
Thomas Craven. "Living Art." Dial 76 (February 1924), p. 182.
Henry McBride. "Modern Art." Dial 76 (February 1924), p. 208.
"'Living Art' Folio and Originals Seen." Art News 22 (February 2, 1924), p. 5.
[Elisabeth Luther Cary]. "The World of Art: Modern Art of One Kind and Another." New York Times (January 27, 1924), p. SM10, ill. p. SM11.
Margaret Breuning. "New York Art Galleries Crowded with Many Shows. Living Art." New York Evening Post (February 2, 1924), p. [14].
Harley Perkins. "The Dial Collection of Living Art: Paintings, Water Colors and Engravings Assembled by Scofield Thayer and Exhibited at the Worcester Art Museum." Boston Evening Transcript (March 22, 1924), p. 8.
Forbes Watson. "Books. Living Art." Arts 5 (January 1924), p. 57.
E. B. K. "Living Art." Century Magazine 108 (May 1924), p. 144.
Herbert J. Seligmann. "Living Art for Americans." Nation 118 (April 9, 1924), p. 403.
R[obert]. R[attray]. T[atlock]. "Review: Living Art." Burlington Magazine 44 (March 1924), p. 154.
Ralph Flint. "More Modernism in New York." Christian Science Monitor 16, no. 57 (February 2, 1924), p. 11.
"Modern Art Spirit Seen in Collection." Worcester Daily Telegram (March 6, 1924), p. 4, ill.
A. E. Gallatin. Charles Demuth. New York, 1927, unpaginated, ill., as "New England," tempera.
Royal Cortissoz. "The Delicate Art of the Late Chas. Demuth." New York Herald Tribune (December 19, 1937), p. 8.
Martha Davidson. "Demuth, Architect of Painting: The Whitney's Complete Show Permits a New Appraisal." Art News 36 (December 18, 1937), p. 8.
"Whitney Opens Memorial Show of Demuth Art." New York Herald Tribune (December 15, 1937), p. 27.
James W. Lane. "Aquarellia Americana." Art News 41 (February 15–28, 1942), p. 12, ill. front cover (color).
Margaret Breuning. "Demuth's Fastidious Taste and Magical Craft." Art Digest 24 (March 15, 1950), p. 17.
Andrew Carnduff Ritchie. Charles Demuth. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York. New York, 1950, pp. 14, 92, ill. p. 71.
Howard Devree. "Demuth Retrospective." New York Times (March 12, 1950), p. X9.
Howard Devree. "Over the Years: The Cone Collection Proves Impressive—Pennsylvania Academy Anniversary." New York Times (January 30, 1955), p. X13, ill.
Leonard Thompson. "Pennsylvania's Masters of Art." Pittsburgh Press (November 27, 1955), p. 49, ill.
"Lancaster Artists' Works Highlights Penn State Show." Sunday News (Lancaster, Penn.) (October 23, 1955), p. 26.
"'Pennsylvania Painters' Exhibit Scheduled for University." Centre Daily Times (State College, Penn.) (September 22, 1955), p. 15.
Harold E. Dickson. Centennial Exhibition: Pennsylvania Painters. Exh. cat., Pennsylvania State University. Mineral Industries Gallery. University Park, 1955, unpaginated, no. 45, ill.
Harold E. Dickson. "Pennsylvania Painters: An Exhibit for Historians." Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 23 (October 1956), ill. p. 475.
Henry McBride. "The Dial: An Adventure of the 1920s." Art News 58 (Summer 1959), p. 29, ill.
Nicholas Joost. "The Dial Collection: Tastes and Trends of the 'Twenties." Apollo 94 (December 1971), p. 494, fig. 7.
Dickran Tashjian. Skyscraper Primitives: Dada and the American Avant-Garde, 1910–1925. Middletown, Conn., 1975, p. 209, ill. between pp. 164 and 165.
Michael Brenson. "Met Museum Given Major Private Collection." New York Times (August 25, 1982), p. C18.
Alvord L. Eiseman. Charles Demuth. New York, 1982, pp. 15–16, 25, calls it "After Sir Christopher Wren" (or "New England").
Betsy Fahlman. Pennsylvania Modern: Charles Demuth of Lancaster. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 1983, pp. 19, 50.
John Richardson. "Rediscovering an Early Modern Vision: The Dial Collection Recalls the Life and Times of Scofield Thayer." House and Garden 159, no. 2 (February 1987), ill. p. 162 (color).
Wanda M. Corn. In the American Grain: The Billboard Poetics of Charles Demuth. Poughkeepsie, N. Y., 1991, p. 32.
James M. Dennis. Renegade Regionalists: The Modern Independence of Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, and John Steuart Curry. Madison, Wisc., 1998, pp. 203–4, fig. 122.
Wanda M. Corn. The Great American Thing: Modern Art and National Identity, 1915–1935. Berkeley, 1999, p. 220.
Betsy Fahlman. Chimneys and Towers: Charles Demuth's Late Paintings of Lancaster. Exh. cat., Amon Carter Museum. Fort Worth, 2007, p. 100.
Claire Barry in Betsy Fahlman. Chimneys and Towers: Charles Demuth's Late Paintings of Lancaster. Exh. cat., Amon Carter Museum. Fort Worth, 2007, pp. 142, 150, 152, 181 n. 41, p. 199, fig. 68 (color).
Kristina Wilson. "Fearing a 'Conservative Public': The Dial Collection in Worcester." American Art 27 (Fall 2013), pp. 30–32, figs. 2 (installation photo, Exh. Worcester 1924), 3 (color).
Sabine Rewald inObsession: Nudes by Klimt, Schiele and Picasso from the Scofield Thayer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met Breuer]. New York, 2018, pp. 114, 119, fig. 50 (color).
Abra Levenson. "Figures and Things: Charles Demuth, 1908–1935." PhD diss., Princeton University, 2018, pp. 109–110, 112–13, 120, 128, 170–71 nn. 187, 195, fig. 105.
Ashley Lazevnick. "Never Still! Nonhuman Life in Charles Demuth's 'Green Pears'." Oxford Art Journal 44 (August 2021), p. 287, fig. 13 (color).
Ashley Lazevnick. Fantasies of Precision: American Modern Art, 1908–1947. Minneapolis, 2023, p. 200, fig. 4.17.
Charles Demuth (American, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 1883–1935 Lancaster, Pennsylvania)
1916
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