Charles Demuth (1883–1935)

CHARLES DEMUTH (1883–1935)
Daisies and Tomatoes, 1925
Watercolor and gouache on paper, 13 3/4 x 11 3/4 in.
Dated and inscribed (on the back): Painted by Charles Demuth 1925 / Willed to Robert E. Locher

RECORDED: Richard W. C. Weyand, “Catalogue of Works by Charles Demuth,” unpublished scrapbooks, New Haven: Yale University, no. 177 // Emily Farnham, “Charles Demuth: His Life, Psychology and Works,” Ph.D. diss., Ohio State University, 1959,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, p. 388 illus. as “Still Life: Daisies and Tomatoes” // Thomas E. Norton, Homage to Charles Demuth: Still Life Painter of Lancaster (Ephrata, Pennsylvania: Science Press, 1978), p. 34 illus. in color; Linda Bantel, “The Potamkin Collection of American Art,” The Magazine Antiques CXXXVI (August 1989), p. 295 plate V illus. in color

EXHIBITED: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, December 15, 1937–January 16, 1938, Charles Demuth: Memorial Exhibition, no. 32, as “Still Life” // Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, October–November 1958, Twentieth Century American Painting and Sculpture from Philadelphia Private Collections, no. 5 // Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, October–November 1963, Philadelphia Collects 20th Century, p. 12 // William Penn Memorial Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, September–November 1966, Charles Demuth of Lancaster, no. 99 // Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, September–October 1968, Art Collecting Philadelphia Style: Selected Works from a Private Collection, no. 2 // Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Texas, January–March 1970, The M. P. Potamkin Collection, no. 16 // The Art Galleries, University of California, Santa Barbara, and traveling, October 1971–April 1972, Charles Demuth: The Mechanical Encrusted on the Living, pp. 57 illus. in color, 83 no. 86 // Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, October–November 1972, Masterworks by Pennsylvania Painters in Pennsylvania Collections, no. 25 illus. in color // William Penn Memorial Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, November 1972–January 1973, An Alumnus Salutes Dickinson College’s 200th Anniversary (From the Collection of Meyer and Vivian Potamkin), pp. 28 illus. in color, 51 no. 41 as “Tomatoes and Daisies” // Andrew Crispo Gallery, New York, May–June 1974, Ten Americans: Masters of Watercolor, no. 40 illus. in color // Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, July–September 1977, 20th Century American Art from Friends’ Collections // Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 15, 1987–January 17, 1988, and traveling, Charles Demuth, p. [167] no. 82 illus. in color // Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, June 1989, American Art from the Collection of Vivian and Meyer P. Potamkin, p. 9

EX COLL.: the artist; to Robert E. Locher (1888–1956), New York and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1935, by bequest; to his sister, Charlotte H. (C. Sasha) Marsden, 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

Demuth died in the bedroom of his Lancaster home on October 23, 1935, after falling into a diabetic coma. He left all the unsold watercolors in his studio, including Daisies and Tomatoes, to Robert E. Locher, who had made a name for himself as an interior decorator, stage-set and costume designer, and illustrator. Locher inherited the Demuth family residence after the death of Augusta Demuth in 1943 and subsequently resided there with his partner, Richard W. C. Weyand. After Weyand’s death, the house was used as an office building and Augusta’s flower garden paved over. The house was later purchased and restored by the Demuth Foundation and operates today as the Demuth Museum.