Acrobats

Acrobats, painted in 1917, is a superb example of the figurative watercolors which began to occupy Demuth's attention in 1915. His "drive to create works that triumphed over pictorial specificity to enter the world of metaphoric allusion found an equally furtive outlet in the figurative watercolors..." (B. Haskell, Charles Demuth, New York, 1987, p. 53) The acrobatic figures were a major theme of Demuth's, reflecting America's most popular form of entertainment at the beginning of the twentieth century. As noted by Barbara Haskell, "Vaudeville and circus acts had enjoyed a special place in the visual tradition. The clown, whether depicted by Watteau, Toulouse-Lautrec, or Picasso, embodied the tragic gap between life's outward glitter and its inner sadness. The clown thus became a symbol of the artist-isolated from, yet entertainer of, society. In Demuth's work, these European precedents became conflated with the vaudeville and circus subjects American Realists took up around the turn of the century. Disinclined as Americans were to symbolic portraiture, the theme gave them a vehicle with which to herald popular American culture. And, indeed, vaudeville did seem a particularly American form of entertainment, notwithstanding its roots in the English music hall. Hartley lauded it as such in several articles and Demuth identified it and its successors as 'really our stuff.'" (Charles Demuth, p. 53) In Acrobats, Demuth captures the energetic vitality of the stage performers, illustrating the strength, agility and balance of the acrobats.

Stylistically, the vaudeville series is similar to Demuth's contemporary floral studies. He anthropomorphosized the floral images, handling the flower form in much the same way he handled the human form. "He treated the supple pencil lines which established the figures' general contours merely as loose armatures through which colors bled. The only exceptions were facial areas, which retained a more precise and illustrational style. As with his floral watercolors, value contrasts and variations in color density within amorphous color areas created an animate, atmospheric surface that visually advanced and receded." (Charles Demuth, p. 54) The prominent color, red, worn by both acrobats draws the viewers' eye to the focal point of the picture. The warmer colors of the background, yellows, hennas and sepias, in combination with Demuth's pencil lines, radiate light, adding drama to the acrobats. The placement of the figures, a man standing on his hands, bearing the weight of the female figure standing upon his feet, serves as a vertical contrast to the variety of objects surrounding their act. The contorted performers, props and backdrop capture the excitement and decadence of the vaudeville act.

This wonderfully explosive watercolor illustrates that "Demuth had reached an aesthetic maturity that he continued to refine and recreate in ever new variations and nuances. His paintings of this period reach a new height in sensitivity of design, media control, composition, delicacy, color, and intensity that is difficult to parallel." (A. L. Eiseman, Charles Demuth, New York, 1982, p. 14)