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Charles Demuth American, 1883-1935
Daisies and Tomatoes, 1925Watercolor and pencil on paper13¾ x 11¾ inches
34.9 x 29.8 cmDated and inscribed on verso: Painted by Charles Demuth 1925 / Willed to Robert E. LocherIn the first decades of the twentieth century, Charles Demuth was among the most talented and innovative watercolorists in America. Daisies and Tomatoes is one of a series of works...In the first decades of the twentieth century, Charles Demuth was among the most talented and innovative watercolorists in America. Daisies and Tomatoes is one of a series of works executed in the early- to mid-1920s that focus on fruit, vegetables, and flowers taken from his mother's garden in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Demuth said of these subjects, that they came from "the garden of my own château." [1] The group of carefully composed studies showcases Demuth's technical brilliance. The present still life, with its bright, jewel-toned colors and botanical subject, harkens back to Demuth's early fine art influences and lessons in china painting taught by a local artist in Lancaster. After Demuth's death in 1935, Daisies and Tomatoes was included in the artist's memorial exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1938. This watercolor and all of the remaining watercolors in the artist's studio at the time of Demuth's death were bequeathed to Robert E. Locher, a longtime companion of Demuth's. By the 1930s, Locher had established himself as a well-known designer and illustrator in New York City.
[1] Demuth to Agnes and Eugene O’Neill, 1919, quoted in Betsy Fahlman, Pennsylvania Modern: Charles Demuth of Lancaster (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1983), p. 51.
Provenance
The artist; to
Robert E. Locher, New York and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1935; by bequest to
Charlotte H. (C. Sasha) Marsden (his sister), New York and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1939;
[Robert Carlen, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania];
Mr. and Mrs. Meyer and Vivian Potamkin, Philadelphia, 1955; to
[Sale, Sotheby’s, New York, May 21, 2003, lot 2]; to
Private collection, 2003 until the present
Exhibitions
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Charles Demuth: Memorial Exhibition, December 15, 1937–January 16, 1938, no. 32, as Still Life
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Twentieth Century American Painting and Sculpture from Philadelphia Private Collections, October–November 1958, no. 5
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, October–November 1963, Philadelphia Collects 20th Century, p. 12
William Penn Memorial Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Charles Demuth of Lancaster, September–November 1966, no. 99
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Art Collecting Philadelphia Style: Selected Works from a Private Collection, September–October 1968, no. 2
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Texas, The M.P. Potamkin Collection, January–March 1970, no. 16
The Art Galleries, University of California, Santa Barbara; University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley; The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; and Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, Charles Demuth: The Mechanical Encrusted on the Living, October 1971–April 1972, p. 57, no. 86 illus. p. 83
Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Masterworks by Pennsylvania Painters in Pennsylvania Collections, October–November 1972, no. 25 illus.
William Penn Memorial Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, An Alumnus Salutes Dickinson College’s 200th Anniversary (From the Collection of Meyer and Vivian Potamkin), November 1972–January 1973, p. 28, no. 41 illus. in color, p. 51, as Tomatoes and Daisies
Andrew Crispo Gallery, New York, Ten Americans: Masters of Watercolor, May–June 1974, no. 40 illus.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 20th Century American Art from Friends’ Collections, July–September 1977
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California, Charles Demuth, October 15, 1987–October 2, 1988, p. 167 no. 82 illus.
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, American Art from the Collection of Vivian and Meyer P. Potamkin, June 1989, p. 9Literature
Richard W.C. Weyand, “Catalogue of Works by Charles Demuth,” unpublished scrapbooks, New Haven: Yale University, no. 177
Emily Farnham, “Charles Demuth: His Life, Psychology and Works,” Ph.D. diss., Ohio State University, 1959, vol. 2, no. 449, pp. 588–89, as Still Life: Daisies and Tomatoes
Alvord L. Eiseman, “A Study of the Development of An Artist,” Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1976, no. 232 illus., p. 388 as Still Life: Daisies and Tomatoes
Thomas E. Norton, Homage to Charles Demuth: Still Life Painter of Lancaster, Ephrata, Pennsylvania: Science Press, 1978, illus. p. 34
Linda Bantel, “The Potamkin Collection of American Art,” The Magazine Antiques CXXXVI, August 1989, p. 295, plate V, illus.
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