Pattern of Lilacs

Pattern of Lilacs
Charles Demuth
November 8, 1883 - October 23, 1935
Artist Biography
Acquisition Number: 71.29
Medium: Watercolor on paper
Size: 18" x 12"
Date: n.d.
Credit: Gift of Mr. Ralph L. Wilson

Demuth spent most of his life in his family home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. His health was frail; from an early age he had a physical disability and severe diabetes. Though burdened with these tribulations, he still managed to travel, including to Paris where he was part of the avant garde scene and produced over a thousand works of art over his lifetime. Although he studied and painted in Philadelphia, New York, Provincetown, Paris, and Bermuda, Demuth created most of his artwork in his Lancaster home, where he worked in a small second floor studio overlooking the garden. The garden was tended by his mother Augusta and was the source of inspiration for many of Demuth’s paintings. He was good friends with artist Georgia O’Keeffe, who visited him in his Lancaster home and they would sit out in his garden and paint together.