American Interior Artist: Charles Sheeler (American, 1883–1965)

1934

American Paintings and Sculpture

On view, 3rd floor, Modern and Contemporary Art and Design


Charles Sheeler based American Interior on a photograph, which he had taken from above, of the living room of his former home in South Salem, New York. He designed the painting with the eye of a photographer, using a cropped composition, an oblique view, precise contours, and contrasts of light and dark. He interwove this modernist vision with his response to the purity of forms and patterns in handmade objects from the American past, such as the simple Shaker designs in the box, textiles, and chair.

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

33 1/4 × 30 1/4 in. (84.5 × 76.8 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of Mrs. Paul Moore

Accession Number

1947.424

Geography

Made in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, United States

Culture

American

Period

20th century

Classification

Paintings

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Fanny Hanna Moore (1885–1980), Morristown, N.J., to 1947; given to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 1947
Bibliography
  • American Art: Selections from the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2023), 220–21, no. 104, ill
  • James H. Maroney, Jr., Fresh Perspectives on Grant Wood, Charles Sheeler, and George H. Durrie (Leicester, Vt.: Gala Books, Ltd., 2019), 170, ill
  • Donald Albrecht et al., Charles Sheeler Fashion, Photography, and Sculptural Form, ed. Kirsten M. Jensen, exh. cat. (Philadelphia: James A. Michener Art Museum, 2017), 49, fig. 3.2
  • Jessica Todd Smith, "Charles Sheeler: Views of Home," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2015), 110, fig. 1
  • Keely Orgeman, "Side by Side: Horace Pippin at Edith Halpert's Downtown Gallery," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2014), 36–41, fig. 2
  • Kristina Wilson, "Ambivalence, Irony, and Americana: Charles Sheeler's "American Interiors"," Winterthur Portfolio (2011), 255, fig. Fig. 4
  • Charles Brock, Charles Sheeler: Across Media, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2006), 15, fig. 6
Object copyright
Copyright Charles Sheeler
In Copyright - Rights-Holder(s) Unlocatable or Unidentifiable
Additional information

Object/Work type

still lifes

Subject

beds (furniture) chairs flowers (plants) mugs plates (dishes) rugs shadows tables (support furniture) vases

Signed

Signed lower right "Sheeler 1934"

Technical metadata and APIs

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