A wide variety of flowers form a bouquet that fills the space.

African Daisies

Demuth, Charles

1925

Artwork Information

  • Title:

    African Daisies

  • Artist:

    Demuth, Charles

  • Artist Bio:

    American, 1883–1935

  • Date:

    1925

  • Medium:

    Watercolor and graphite on paper

  • Dimensions:

    17 3/4 x 11 3/4 in.

  • Credit Line:

    Wichita Art Museum, Roland P. Murdock Collection

  • Object Number:

    M92.51

  • Display:

    Not Currently on Display

About the Artwork

African Daisies, like all of Demuth’s flower pieces, is meticulously organized. The painting, as with other early still lifes, is characterized by a design, centered on an untouched white paper background, which fills the paper from edge to edge. The forms are built with gradational hues, for Demuth realized that as Cezanne has said, “The greatest plentitude of form is achieved where the greatest intensity of color is used.” Demuth was engrossed in the study of each separate species of plant, prompting Andrew Carnduff Ritchie to write: “But above all it is his astonishing perception of the form and character peculiar to such a wide variety of flowers that impresses one most. He perceives in their individual structure and shapes the gestures and features which reveal the personality of a cyclamen, a rose, a poppy or a daisy.”1

  1. Andrew Carnduff Ritchie, Charles Demuth, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Copyright 1950, p. 10.