Charles Demuth (1883 –1935) was an American painter who specialized in watercolors and turned to oils late in his career, developing a style of painting known as Precisionism. Challenging the boundaries of race, class, sexuality, and artistic tradition, he digested the shifting social landscape around him and left behind a memorable body of work that defies categorization.

Demuth was an introvert, absorbed in his own private world, and although he didn’t inherit his father’s strong physical genes, he coincided with him at least in one area – art. Among Charles’ great aunts and great uncles on his father’s side there were a lot of amateur painters. His father had also dabbled in amateur photography, though his passion for it had sprung from an antiquarian and historical pursuit instead of an aesthetic one. It was clear that the young Charles displayed an unusually precocious gift for art.

In 1903, Charles Demuth entered the Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry in Philadelphia as an elementary art student, and in 1905 he entered the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he had William Merritt Chase and Thomas Anschutz as teachers.

In 1907, Charles Demuth went to Paris, and his interactions with the local artistic styles, expressive forms and colors defined his later work. He was one of the few American painters of that period who had a complete understanding of the new European movements, such as Cubism or Dada. Demuth evolved in his art, always remaining receptive throughout his career to a wide range of styles and influences, which were intelligently transmuted in his works.

Between 1912 and 1913, Demuth’s early watercolors reveal a fragile, understated style, with landscapes executed in delicate washes, evoking his European associations and inspirations. By 1915, he was already established as a major American artist through his flower studies, landscapes, and depictions of circus or cabaret performers.

In 1923, Charles Demuth began painting his series of “poster portraits”, symbolic interpretations of the works of fellow artists and writers, including Georgia O’Keeffe, Arthur Dove, John Marin, Gertrude Stein, and William Carlos Williams. That same year, Demuth became one of the first of his contemporaries to have work purchased for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s permanent collection. Source: Wikiart.