Object number1988.49

Apple and Acorn Squash

Date1929

Artist Charles Demuth (American, 1883-1935)

CultureAmerican

MediumWatercolor on paper

DimensionsFramed: 18 3/8 x 24 3/8 in. (46.67 x 61.91 cm)
Sheet: 12 x 17 15/16 in. (30.48 x 45.56 cm)

Credit LineGift of Angeline James Pool, class of 1940, in memory of Oliver B. James and Helen James Fane, class of 1940

On View

Not on view

Period20th c

Classification(s)

Drawings and Watercolors

SignedNot signed

BibliographyMundy, James, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center: Vassar College The History and Collection (New York: Prestel Publishing, 2007), p. 104 repr.; Promised GIfts '77 (Poughkeepsie: FLLAC, 1977) p 51 repr

Vassar Exhibitions

Catching Light: European and American Watercolors from the Permanent Collection

Alumni Reunion Exhibition (1990)

Exhibition HistoryPoughkeepsie, NY, FLLAC, Vassar College, "Promised Gifts '77," April 20 - May 22, 1977;

Poughkeepsie, NY, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, "Catching Light: European and American Watercolors from the Permanent Collection," May 8- July 26, 2009.
DescriptionCharles Demuth, along with Georgia O’Keeffe, Arthur Dove, John Marin, and Marsden Hartley, was one of the group of modernist artists championed by the impresario photographer and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz. Demuth’s art ranged widely from the colorful pastimes and distractions of urban envir- onments to lovingly depicted simple beauties of the rural American scene around Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Such a watercolor as this study of fruit and vegetables is part of a body of superb work by the artist in this very demanding medium, of which Demuth was one of its greatest twentieth- century practitioners. The Vassar watercolor is tentatively dated, based on what seems to have been a second watercolor in a private collection of the same squash and bowl that is signed and dated 1929. The influence of Cézanne is unmistakable in Demuth’s still-lifes, but they have an interest in faceted forms and geometry that also draw on Cubist prototypes.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu