Collections: American Art: Roofs and Steeple

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Roofs and Steeple

After encountering French Cubism in Paris, Charles Demuth produced a large body of still-life and architectural watercolors based in a Cubist-inspired faceting of forms. Particularly drawn to the small-town American architecture of his native Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he continued to spend a significant amount of time, Demuth transposed the architectural volumes into two-dimensional designs of selected planes set off by precisely ruled lines. Within these compositions, the tones and density of his washes suggest spatial depth while areas of unpainted paper reassert the two-dimensional surface.


• Artist: Charles Demuth, American, 1883-1935
• Medium: Watercolor and graphite on textured wove paper
• Dates: 1921
• Dimensions: 14 3/8 x 10 7/16 in. (36.5 x 26.5 cm) Frame: 24 x 18 x 1 1/2 in. (61 x 45.7 x 3.8 cm)
• Markings: Watermark in lower right, reads correctly from recto: 'A.L.' in circular design
• Signature: Signed lower left: 'C. Demuth 1921.'
• Inscriptions: Several graphite notations on verso: '1025', '4" white', '3522', '212'
• Collections: American Art
• Museum Location: This item is not on view
• Accession Number: 50.159
• Credit Line: Dick S. Ramsay Fund
• Image: Overall, 50.159_PS2.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2005
Charles Demuth (American, 1883-1935). Roofs and Steeple, 1921. Watercolor and graphite on textured wove paper, 14 3/8 x 10 7/16 in. (36.5 x 26.5 cm) Frame: 24 x 18 x 1 1/2 in. (61 x 45.7 x 3.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 50.159 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 50.159_PS2.jpg)