A SURPRISING DISCOVERY & CORRELATION

Over the years, after I had painted a number of demo watercolor pieces for various art organizations (forty+ over the years), and my own alla prima studies of fruits and vegetables, I quite inadvertently came across very similar subject matter and paintings by some well-known predecessors. In the case of the examples I feature here are a few comparable watercolors by one artist in particular that have surprising references to my own works.

That remarkable fine artist happens to be Chares Demuth (November 8, 1883 – October 23, 1935), an American painter who specialized primarily in watercolors, as well as other media. My Discovery of this connection was made quite by accident, when some years ago I was leafing through an outdated appointment book, given to me by my long-time friend Thomas Schaller. Featured overleaf with each month’s date format were watercolors by various artists. I had saved this book for many years because of the inspiring range of paintings. More carefully leafing through it again, I came across one of Demuth’s striking pieces, which quite knocked me over, seeing how it related so closely to my own piece. I later researched and discovered some other correlating works by Demuth that I previously had no idea were parallels to the pieces shown here.

Demuth graduated from Franklin & Marshall Academy before studying at Drexel University?and at Philadelphia's?Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. According to Ken Johnson?writing?in?The New York Times…”Combining exacting botanical observation and a loosely Cubist?abstraction, his watercolors of flowers, fruit and vegetables have a magical liveliness and an almost shocking sensuousness." Demuth was contemporary with M. Hartley, W.C. Williams, A. Stieglitz, C. Sheeler, J. Marin, G. O’Keeffe, & others; he created some of this country’s iconic paintings in watercolor, oil & tempera, in a realist style typical of the Precisionist School at that time, with sidetracks into what later emerged as Pop Art.

My Discovery of the Demuth piece, above, and the correlation between our two works was what set off this whole article. My large watercolor was a live demo work executed for an art association in the Boston area. I had been watching, from our second floor window, a purple cabbage growing in our garden for quite some time; and as it was getting bigger, I was fascinated by the metallic aspect of its large outer leaves reflecting the sunlight in various ways. We also grew a multi-color Swiss Chard in the garden, and I had decided both vegetables would be perfect subjects for this demo painting.

I had prepped a full-sheet (22” x 30”) watercolor paper, Arches 140# Hot Press, and after the tableau was set for the demo and because I had been watching this amazing growth for so many weeks, the watercolors just flowed. Though the entire subject had been finished during this demo session, the pale yellow-ish complimentary background color was added in studio. ?Also inspired by some artists' correlation of visual art with music (like Whistler), I later titled this work for show as above, “Color Concerto in Cabbage & Swiss Chard”.

Having also found Demuth’s trio of green pears on a white field, it shows his deft brushwork, which suggests that each piece was painted and completed in one step. For my own mixed fruit study of a green and a red pear with onion, the varying hues of the bump end of a green pear are similar, but the auric blue shadows set off the composition. The red pear skin was complimented by shadings of green-ish blue, while the onion conveniently provided another color compliment of violet and magenta to both. ?One of Demuth’s favorite pigments was Chromium Oxide Green, a heavy, sedimentary, and reliably opaque color, which he used to careful effect with this pear trio.

For my last corresponding example, Demuth’s eggplant study, another trio above, depicts a smaller plant variety. The rich, deep purplish color is not an easy hue to capture (my guess is perhaps a studied mixture of a prussian blue with a burnt sienna, and the oxide of chromium for the leaf ends); but the effective highlights in his sketch separate the forms, further set off by somewhat angular light blue shadow shapes.?

In my own study - this piece from a New Jersey farmer’s market during a plein air event - a larger striated eggplant variety is paired with a freshly picked, partially husked corn for this composition. The contrasting color of a mixed deep violet and a rich green top, with the contrasting yellow corn cob and green sheaf was what prompted this study. (I have seldom applied and been very cautious about using Chromium Oxide Green…"wilcox guide to the best watercolor paints"...)

Thanks again viewers for checking out these interesting comparisons, which might also be evident to you. I hope this article provides some parallels of artists’ views and approaches that seem to reach across the decades.

Your viewing and reading of this 4-minute article is much appreciated, and any comments would be most welcomed.

I can provide custom prints of any subject on request. Interested? Please let me know. Demuth Imagery from on-line. All FMC images are copyrighted to this artist. Thanks Much, LI Readers!???????????????????????