Demuth, Charles (1883-1935),

American painter, born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia and in Paris and Berlin. Demuth demonstrated an early awareness of the new avenues of expression being explored by contemporary European artists. Aspects of expressionism, fauvism, and cubism found their way into his work.

His illustrations, executed in line and watercolor between 1915 and 1919 for such works as Nana by the French writer Émile Zola and The Turn of the Screw by the American writer Henry James, achieved considerable critical acceptance.

But his fame rests most securely on his watercolors of flowers and circus people and his cool, semiabstract architectural scenes in oil and tempera. Examples of the latter are I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold (1928, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City), Business (1921, Art Institute of Chicago), and My Egypt (1927, Whitney Museum, New York City).