Bermuda No. 1, Tree and House

Charles Demuth

1917 · Watercolor, graphite, and cut-and-pasted paper on paper · Modern and Contemporary Art

Demuth and Marsden Hartley rented rooms on the top floor of a well situated but inexpensive hotel on St. George's Island (Bermuda). Located on a hilltop, it afforded them charming views of the harbor and the island architecture. According to Hartley, they each planned "to get a room elsewhere to work in." In this complex picture, Demuth represents the setting as a series of receding registers. Starting with the gnarly tree in the foreground, he compresses the space to include a house with peaked roof, lush vegetation, water, rolling hills, and a tall tower. In 1924, Demuth gave this watercolor to Stieglitz, noting that "It has a small piece of paper pasted on it, —over one of the roofs."

Artist

Charles Demuth

Date

1917

Medium

Watercolor, graphite, and cut-and-pasted paper on paper

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949