Charles Sheeler

{{Infobox artist

| name = Charles Sheeler

| image = Charles Sheeler.jpg

| caption = Charles Sheeler standing next to a window. c. 1910.

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1883|7|16|}}

| birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US

| death_date = {{death date and age|1965|5|7|1883|7|16|}}

| death_place = Dobbs Ferry, New York, US

| field = Modern art, Photography

| training =

| movement = Precisionism, American Modernism

| works =

| patrons =

| awards =

}}

Charles Sheeler (July 16, 1883 – May 7, 1965) was an American artist known for his Precisionist paintings, commercial photography, and the 1921 avant-garde film, Manhatta, which he made in collaboration with Paul Strand. Sheeler is recognized as one of the early adopters of modernism in American art.

Early life and career

Charles Rettew Sheeler Jr. was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art from 1900 to 1903, and then the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied under William Merritt Chase. He found early success as a painter and exhibited at the Macbeth Gallery in 1908.Borland, Jennifer. [http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/findingaids/sheechar.htm Finding Aid to the Charles Sheeler Papers, circa 1840s-1966, bulk 1923-1965]. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Most of his education was in drawing and other applied arts. He went to Italy with other students, where he was intrigued by the Italian painters of the Middle Ages, such as Giotto and Piero della Francesca. After a trip to Paris in 1909, Sheeler was inspired by works of Cubist artists like Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.{{Cite journal|last = Murphy|first = Jessica|date = 2000|title = "Charles Sheeler (1883–1965)".|journal = In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art}} Returning to the United States, Sheeler felt that he would not be able to make a living as a modernist painter, so he took up commercial photography, focusing on architectural subjects.{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}} Sheeler was a self-taught photographer, learning his trade on a five dollar Brownie. {{Citation needed|date=June 2022}}

Early in his career, he was greatly impacted by the death of his close friend Morton Livingston Schamberg during the influenza epidemic of 1918.[https://www.nytimes.com/1982/11/12/arts/art-the-pioneering-of-morton-schamberg.html Grace Glueck review of Morton Schamberg, NY Times, 1982] Retrieved August 11, 2010 Schamberg's painting had focused heavily on machinery and technology,{{Cite journal|last = Pohald|first = Mark|date = October 2007|title = Charles Sheeler: Across The Media|journal = Exhibit Review. Chicago.Art Institute.}} a theme that featured prominently in Sheeler's own work.

Sheeler owned a farmhouse in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, about 39 miles outside Philadelphia, which he shared with Schamberg until the latter's death.{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}} He was so fond of the home's 19th century stove that he called it his "companion" and made it a subject of his photographs. The farmhouse itself serves a prominent role in many of his photographs, which include shots of the bedroom, kitchen, and stairway. At one point he was quoted as calling it his "cloister." {{Citation needed|date=June 2022}} His work was also part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics.{{cite web|url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/921786 |title=Charles Sheeler Jr. |work=Olympedia |accessdate=August 6, 2020}}

On April 2, 1939, Sheeler married Musya Metas Sokolova, his second wife, six years after the death in 1933 of first wife Katharine Baird Shaffer (married April 7, 1921).{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}} In 1942, Sheeler joined the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a senior research fellow in photography, worked on a project in Connecticut with the photographer Edward Weston, and moved with Musya to Irvington-on-Hudson, some twenty miles north of New York. Sheeler worked for the Metropolitan Museum's Department of Publications from 1942 to 1945, photographing artworks and historical objects.{{Citation | editor-last=Warren |editor-first=Lynne | title=Encyclopedia of twentieth-century photography | date=2006 | publisher=New York Routledge | page=1418 | isbn=978-0-203-94338-0 }}

Sheeler painted in a Precisionist style that complemented his photography and has been described as "quasi-photographic".[Styles, schools and movements, published by Thames & Hudson 2002 Amy Dempsey]

''Manhatta''

In 1920, Sheeler invited photographer Paul Strand to collaborate on a "portrait" of Manhattan in film. The resulting 35mm nine-minute series of vignettes, called Manhatta after Walt Whitman's poem, Mannahatta, was the first avant-garde film created in America.{{Cite web |title=Paul Strand, Charles Sheeler. Manhatta. 1921 |url=https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/paul-strand-charles-sheeler-manhatta-1921/ |accessdate=June 18, 2022 |website=moma.org}}

In 1995 the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".{{Cite web|title=The 25 Films for '95 (February 5, 1996) - Library of Congress Information Bulletin|url=https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9602/nfr2.html|access-date=2020-12-11|website=www.loc.gov}}{{Cite web|title=Complete National Film Registry Listing |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/|access-date=2020-12-11|website=Library of Congress}}

Work with General Motors and Ford Motor Company

His work is featured at the General Motors Technical Center in Warren Michigan.{{cite web

|title = General Motors Technical Center

|publisher = Society of Architectural Historians

|author =

|date = 23 July 2018

|url = https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MI-01-MB3}} He was hired by the Ford Motor Company to photograph and make paintings of their factories.{{when|date=August 2022}}{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}}

Photography and film work

File:Manhatta (1921).webm

=Films created by Charles Sheeler=

1921 [http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/artists_view/manhatta_main.html Manhatta] (with Paul Strand)]

=Photographic works=

1917 [https://web.archive.org/web/20060417232330/http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOne.asp?dep=19&viewMode=0&item=33%2E43%2E343 Doylestown House: Stairs from Below] (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
1927 [https://web.archive.org/web/20060514044722/http://www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/viewone.asp?dep=19&viewmode=0&item=1987%2E1100%2E1 Criss-Crossed Conveyors, River Rouge Plant, Ford Motor Company] (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
[http://www.michenerartmuseum.org/exhibition/charles-sheeler-fashion-photography-and-sculptural-form/ 1928 Images from Vogue and Vanity Fair]

Selected paintings

=Early works=

File:Charles Sheeler's Still Life.jpeg

File:Connecticut Barns SAAM-1985.8.29 1.jpg{{cite news |last=Conroy |first=Sarah Booth |date=August 10, 1983 |title=GSA Finds Lost Sheeler Canvas| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1983/08/10/gsa-finds-lost-sheeler-canvas/566e228e-fb17-4e73-89ba-9c1f8a6d193b/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=August 8, 2022}}]]

[http://www.davidrumsey.com/amica/amico8100591-36910.html Church Street El] (1920) – The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland
[http://www.davidrumsey.com/amica/amico877001-44139.html Still Life] (1925) – M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco
[http://www.davidrumsey.com/amica/amico886643-14354.html Lady of the Sixties] (1925) – Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
[http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/art/299846 Upper Deck] (1928–1929) – Harvard Art Museum, Cambridge, MA
[http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=79032 American Landscape] (1930) – Museum of Modern Art, New York City
[http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1992.24.8 Americana] (1931) – Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
[https://web.archive.org/web/20101109161153/http://www.nga.gov/fcgi-bin/timage_f?object=105879.0&oimage=0&c= Classic Landscape] (1931) – Barney A. Ebsworth collection
[http://www.davidrumsey.com/amica/amico867774-17622.html View of New York] (1931) – Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

[https://web.archive.org/web/20120925174239/http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/sheeler/fig_02.shtm Interior with Stove] (1932) – National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20121027045359/http://whitney.org/Collection/CharlesSheeler/3243 River Rouge Plant] (1933) – Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
[https://artgallery.yale.edu/overall-search/sheeler?f%5B0%5D=type%3Acollections_object American Interior] (1934) – Yale University Gallery, New Haven
[https://springfieldmuseums.org/collections/item/ephrata-charles-sheeler/ Ephrata] (1934) – D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA
[http://www.worcesterart.org/Collection/American/1937.3.html City Interior] (1936) – Worcester Art Museum, Worcester

=Power series=

In 1940, Fortune Magazine published a series of six paintings commissioned of Sheeler. To prepare for the series, Sheeler spent a year traveling and taking photographs. Fortune editors aimed to “reflect life through forms … [that] trace the firm pattern of the human mind,” and Sheeler chose six subjects to fulfill this theme: a water wheel (Primitive Power), a steam turbine (Steam Turbine), the railroad (Rolling Power), a hydroelectric turbine (Suspended Power), an airplane (Yankee Clipper) and a dam (Conversation: Sky and Earth) {{Ref|Fortune}}.

Conversation: Sky and Earth (1939) – Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth
Primitive Power (1939) – The Regis Collection, Minneapolis
[https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/browser.php?m=objects&kv=2000906&i=3241478 Rolling Power] (1939) – Smith College, Northampton
[https://web.archive.org/web/20050803074745/http://www.butlerart.com/pc_book/pages/charles_sheeler_1883.htm Steam Turbine] (1939) – Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown
[https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/suspended-power/FQH7OmAEXfaHPQ?hl=en-GB&avm=2 Suspended Power] (1939) – Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas
[http://risdmuseum.org/art_design/objects/1111_yankee_clipper Yankee Clipper] (1939) – Rhode Island School of Design, Providence

=Later works=

File:Charles Sheeler Monument 2010.JPG) in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery]]

[https://web.archive.org/web/20041119235811/http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?94438+0+0 Interior] (1940) – National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
[http://www.davidrumsey.com/amica/amico867778-18164.html Fugue] (1940) – Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
[http://collection.terraamericanart.org/view/objects/asitem/search$0040swgclassification$$IS_STRICT$$PAINTINGS/283/dateBegin-asc/alphaSort-asc;jsessionid=328908EEEEE717B85760CEC8138D2D28?t:state:flow=158c74c6-15de-4e72-9361-48bf93fe9ada Bucks County Barn] (1940) – Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago
[http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/49714 The Artist Looks at Nature] (1943) – Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
[http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/49.128/ Water] (1945) – Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
[https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/987/Incantation Incantation] (1946) – Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn
[http://collections.currier.org/Obj59 Amoskeag Canal] (1948) – Currier Museum of Art, Manchester
[http://www.museumsyndicate.com/item.php?item=15697 Windows] (1952) – Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York City
[http://www.reynoldahouse.org/collections/object/conversation-piece Conversation Piece] (1952) – Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem
[https://web.archive.org/web/20130408101722/http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/collection/artwork/279 Aerial Gyrations] (1953) – San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
[http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/sheeler/fig_12.shtm New England Irrelevancies] (1953) – Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
[http://educators.mfa.org/objects/detail/199355?related_people_text=Charles+Sheeler Ore Into Iron] (1953) – Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
[http://www.daytonartinstitute.org/art/collection-highlights/american/charles-sheeler Stacks in Celebration] (1954) – Dayton Art Institute, Dayton
[http://www.cartermuseum.org/exhibitions/a-sense-of-place-precisionism-in-america/artworks/780 Architectural Cadences Number 4] (1954) – Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth
Lunenburg (1954) – Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
[http://www.walkerart.org/collections/artworks/midwest Midwest] (1954) – Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
[http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/55.99 Golden Gate] (1955) – Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
[http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/93789 Western Industrial] (1955) – Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
[http://www.neuberger.org/exhibitions/view/286.html The Web] (1955) – Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY
[http://educators.mfa.org/objects/detail/202379 On a Shaker Theme] (1956) – Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
[http://educators.mfa.org/objects/detail/139663 Red Against White] (1957) – Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Composition Around White (1959) – Collection of Deborah and Ed Shein

Exhibitions

"Charles Sheeler: Paintings, Drawings, Photographs" – Museum of Modern Art, New York, October 4 – November 1, 1939.{{citation |editor-last=Roberts |editor-first=Norma J. |title=The American Collections |publisher=Columbus Museum of Art |year=1988 |isbn=0-8109-1811-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/americancollecti0000colu/page/198 198] |url=https://archive.org/details/americancollecti0000colu/page/198 }}.
"Paintings by Charles Sheeler" – Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio, November 2 – December 2, 1944.
"Charles Sheeler: A Retrospective Exhibition" – Art Galleries, University of California at Los Angeles, October 11 – November 7, 1954. Toured November 18 – June 15, 1955 at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco; Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego; and Fort Worth Art Center, Fort Worth, Texas; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Munson-Williams Proctor Institute, Utica, New York.
"Charles Sheeler Retrospective Exhibition" – Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania, November 17 – December 31, 1961.
"Charles Sheeler Retrospective Exhibition" - March 17 – April 14, 1963 - State University of Iowa, Department of Art.
"Charles Sheeler" – National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, DC, October 10 – November 24, 1968. Toured January 10 – April 27, 1969 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
"Charles Sheeler: The Works on Paper" - Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, February 10 – March 24, 1974; Terry Dintenfass, Incorporated, 18 East 67 Street, New York, NY, April 2 - April 20, 1974. 62 works on paper. An exhibition organized at the Pennsylvania State University; catalogue and selection by John P. Driscoll; catalogue foreword, Wm. Hull, Director, Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University; 81 pages. "Charles Sheeler: The Works on Paper", Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, 1974.
"Charles Sheeler: Across Media" – National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, May 7 – August 27, 2006. Toured at the Art Institute of Chicago, October 7, 2006 – January 7, 2007; and the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, February 10 – May 6, 2007. 50 works included, including paintings, photographs, works on paper, and a film.{{cite web|url=http://www.nga.gov/past/data/exh867.shtm |title=NGA – Charles Sheeler: Across Media (5/2006) |publisher=National Gallery of Art |access-date=September 19, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110509050212/http://www.nga.gov/past/data/exh867.shtm |archive-date=May 9, 2011 }}
"The Photography of Charles Sheeler" – Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Toured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, June 3 – August 17, 2003; the Detroit Institute of Arts; and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Nearly 100 works, including 90 photographs.{{cite web|title=The Photography of Charles Sheeler |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/special/Charles_Sheeler/photography_more.htm |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=September 19, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807063347/http://www.metmuseum.org/special/Charles_Sheeler/photography_more.htm |archive-date=August 7, 2011 }}
[http://www.michenerartmuseum.org/exhibition/charles-sheeler-fashion-photography-and-sculptural-form/ "Charles Sheeler: Fashion, Photography, and Sculptural Form", Curated by Kirsten M. Jensen, Ph.D., Gerry & Marguerite Lenfest, Chief Curator, James A. Michener Art Museum, March 18-July 9, 2017.]

Gallery

= Paintings =

File:Dahlias and asters, 1912.jpg | Dahlias and asters, 1912

File:Chrysanthemums 1912 sheeler.jpg | Chrysanthemums, 1912

File:Landscape, 1913.jpg | 1913

File:Lhasa,1916.jpg | Lhasa,1916

File:Barn by Charles Sheeler.jpg | Barn, 1917. Conté crayon on paper

File:Skyscrapers Sheeler 1922.jpg | Skyscrapers, 1922

File:Pertaining to Yachts and Yachting.jpg | Pertaining to Yachts and Yachting, 1922

File:Gladioli in White Pitcher - Charles Sheeler.jpg | Gladioli in White Pitcher, 1926

= Photographs =

File:Side of White Barn, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, by Charles Sheeler, 1915.jpg | Side of White Barn, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1915

File:Bucks County Barn, by Charles Sheeler.jpg | Bucks County Barn, 1914-1917

File:Portrait of Marcel Duchamp by Baroness Freytag-Lohringhoven Charles Sheeler.jpg | Portrait of Marcel Duchamp by Baroness Freytag-Lohringhoven, 1922

File:Criss-Crossed Conveyors, River Rouge Plant, Ford Motor Company.jpg | Criss-Crossed Conveyors, River Rouge Plant, Ford Motor Company, 1927

File:Bleeder Stacks, Ford Plant, Detroit, by Charles Sheeler, 1927.jpg | Bleeder Stacks, Ford Plant, Detroit, 1927

File:Ford Plant, River Rouge, Blast Furnace and Dust Catcher, by Charles Sheeler.jpg | Ford Plant, River Rouge, Blast Furnace and Dust Catcher, 1927

Notes

{{note|Fortune}} "Power: A portfolio by Charles Sheeler", Fortune magazine (December 1940) Time Inc., Volume XXII, Number 6

References

External links

[http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-charles-sheeler-12883 Oral history interview with Charles Sheeler, 1958 Dec. 9, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution]
[http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-charles-sheeler-12824 Oral history interview with Charles Sheeler, 1959 June 18, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20061019231010/http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/sheeler/index.shtm Charles Sheeler: Across Media, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC ]

Category:20th-century American photographers

Category:20th-century American painters

Category:American male painters

Category:American modern artists

Category:Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumni

Category:Precisionism

Category:1883 births

Category:1965 deaths

Category:University of the Arts (Philadelphia) alumni

Category:Burials at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

Category:Olympic competitors in art competitions

Category:Painters from Philadelphia