Charles Demuth

A frail, sensitive artist, Charles Demuth wanted to create “moments” in his art and share unique impressions of his subjects. Born and raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he graduated from Franklin and Marshall Academy and studied at the Drexel Institute and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where William Merritt Chase and Thomas Ancheus were his teachers. In 1907 he made his first trip to Paris where he became part of Gertrude Stein’s avant-garde salon, engaging with Picasso and Hemingway, among others. In New York, Alfred Stieglitz represented his work and Demuth became known as an American modernist. In that environment, he developed close ties with Marcel Duchamp, Marsden Hartley, and Georgia O’Keeffe, who occasionally visited him in Lancaster where they painted together in his mother, Augusta’s, garden. 

Charles and his family moved from North Line Street to King Street when he was six years old. He created a studio there and worked in the home’s comfort while suffering from a childhood hip ailment that resulted in lameness, and adult onset of diabetes. His home and studio became The Demuth Museum in 1981. It is a member of Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. As they state on their website, “Though plagued by illness all his life, he produced over a thousand works of art, including the well-known ‘My Egypt’ which was inspired by grain elevators in Lancaster.” He is also well known for his beautiful watercolors of nature-based subjects, floral still-life paintings, and garden landscapes, as well as figurative groups featuring sailors, circus performers, and social gatherings.

For more information, visit https://www.demuth.org/charles-demuth.