Spring

1921

Charles Demuth
American, 1883–1935

In Spring Charles Demuth depicted the sample cards used to advertise new spring fabrics. Pablo Picasso was the first to create such painted collages—a practice called Synthetic Cubism. Although Demuth saw examples of the style in both New York and Paris, he only experimented with it once, in this work. Here his subject allowed him to construct the ideal modernist painting by using overlapping planes that remain faithful to the canvas’s inherent flatness. However, the sample cards also connect his picture to everyday concerns. By titling his painting Spring, Demuth wryly highlighted the new reality of American life, in which the changing of seasons was heralded not by nature but by commerce.

Status: On View, Gallery 271
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Charles Demuth
Title: Spring
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1921
Medium: Oil and graphite on canvas
Dimensions: 56.2 × 61.3 cm (22 1/8 × 24 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Through prior gift of the Albert Kunstadter Family Foundation
Reference Number: 1989.231

“Random Impressions in Current Exhibitions,” New York Tribune, Dec. 24, 1922: 7–8.
Emily Farnham, “Charles Demuth: His Life, Psychology and Works” (PhD diss., Ohio State University, 1959), 108, 109, 451.
Emily Farnham, Charles Demuth: Behind a Laughing Mask, Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971, 120–21, 201.
Alvord L. Eiseman, “A Charles Demuth Retrospective Exhibition,” Art Journal 31, no. 3 (1972): 283–84 (ill.).
Alvord L. Eiseman, “A Study of the Development of an Artist: Charles Demuth” (PhD diss., New York University, 1976), 309–10 (ill.)
Alvord L. Eiseman, Charles Demuth, New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1982, 17, 25 (ill.).
Grace Glueck, “Critic’s Choices: Best in Entertainment This Holiday Weekend,” The New York Times, Nov. 26, 1982, sec. C, 14.
William C. Agee, “Charles Demuth,” The New Criterion (June 1988): 44.
Charles F. Stuckey, “Selected Recent Acquisitions of Twentieth-Century Art at The Art Institute of Chicago,” The Burlington Magazine (Oct. 1993): 727, fig. VIII (ill.)
James N. Wood and Teri J. Edelstein, The Art Institute of Chicago: Twentieth-Century Painting and Sculpture, Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1996, 47 (ill.)
Judith A. Barter, American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago: From World War I to 1955. Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 2009, 98 (ill.).
Lisa Stein, “Seeing Beyond the Must-Sees,” Chicago Tribune, April 18, 2003, sec. 7 (ill).

New York, Daniel Gallery, Recent Paintings by Charles Demuth, Dec. 1(?), 1922–Jan. 2, 1923, cat. 8.
New York, An American Place, Charles Demuth: Retrospective Exhibition Including Latest Work–Watercolors–Drawings–Oil Paintings, Apr. 14–May 11, 1931, no cat.
New York, Egan Gallery, 12 Works of Distinction, 1946, no cat.
Charleston, SC, Carolina Art Association, Gibbes Art Gallery, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Extended Loan Program, 1953–1961, Dec. 7, 1953 –Sept. 20, 1954, no cat.; Salt Lake City, UT, Westminster College, Nov. 16, 1954–June 8, 1955; Lexington, KY, University of Kentucky, Sept. 6, 1955–Apr. 3, 1956; Bozeman, MT, Montana State University, Aug. 29, 1956–Mar. 25, 1957; Charlotte, NC, The Mint Museum, Sept. 17, 1957–Apr. 9, 1958; Lewisburg, PA, Bucknell University Dec. 19, 1958–Apr. 20, 1959; Burlington, VT, University of Vermont, Jan. 6–June 6, 1960; Talledega, AL, Talledega College, Dec. 13, 1960–June 16, 1961.
Santa Barbara, The Art Galleries, University of California, Charles Demuth: The Mechanical Encrusted on the Living, Oct. 5–Nov. 14, 1971, cat. 30 (ill.); Berkeley, University Art Museum, University of California, Nov. 22, 1971–Jan. 3, 1972; Washington, DC, The Phillips Collection, Jan. 19–Feb. 29, 1972; Utica, NY, Munson–Williams–Proctor Institute, Mar. 19–Apr. 16, 1972.
Washington, DC, National Collection of Fine Arts (now Smithsonian American Art Museum), Pennsylvania Academy Moderns 1910–1940, May 9–July 6,1975, cat. 21 (ill.); Philadelphia, Peale House, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, July 30–Sept. 6, 1975.
New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, American Art from the Gallery’s Collection, Oct. 4–25, 1980, cat. 80 (ill.).
New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Lines of Different Character: American Art from 1727 to 1947, Nov. 13, 1982–Jan. 4, 1983, cat. 71 (ill.).
New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Modern Times: Aspects of American Art, 1907–1956, Nov. 1–Dec. 6, 1986, cat. 23 (ill.).
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Charles Demuth, Oct. 15, 1987–Jan. 17, 1988, no cat. no (ill.); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Feb. 25–Apr. 24, 1988; Columbus Museum of Art, May 8–July 10, 1988; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Aug. 4–Octo 2, 1988.
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Making Mischief: Dada Invades New York, Nov. 20, 1996–Mar. 2, 1997, no cat. no. (ill.).

With C. Phillip Boyer, New York, by 1947; sold to Karl Nierendorf (1889–1947), New York, by 1947; Estate of Karl Nierendorf (possessed by New York State), 1947; sold to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1948; consigned to Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1979; private collection, 1982; consigned to Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1989; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1989.

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