Image

Charles Demuth

Bicyclists, ca. 1916 - 1917

Description

Maker

Title

Bicyclists

Year

ca. 1916 - 1917

Medium

Watercolor and pencil on paper

Materials/Techniques

Dimensions

27.6 x 21.4 cm (10 7/8 x 8 7/16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

collector's stamp on mat, in blue ink: D.B.W. [surrounded by box]

Type

Credit

Gift of the Fazzano Brothers

Object Number

84.198.1178

Projects & Publications

Publications

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Circus

August 1, 2014 - February 22, 2015

Between 1916 and 1917, Charles Demuth executed a group of watercolors featuring circus performers and dancers. Fluid brushstrokes and translucent washes of color emphasize the performers’ flexible bodies and nimble movements. The yellow areas mimic the effect of spotlights and create a hazy, dreamlike glow around the figures, enhancing the sense of their strength and daring.

Tradition and Innovation in American Watercolors

January 27 - April 11, 1999

Watercolor was Charles Demuth's principal medium of expression, as it was for modernists John Marin and Charles Burchfield. Like many artists and writers of his generation, Demuth was attracted to vaudeville and circus performers and enjoyed capturing their graceful bodies in movement. This drawing's playful subject and simplicity of forms and contours belies Demuth's great skill at laying on washes of color.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Bicyclists with the accession number of 84.198.1178. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.