Bucks County Barn

1915

Not on view

A realistic painter and photographer, Sheeler sought to uncover the harmonious coherence in the forms of indigenous American architecture. This work, one of the groundbreaking photographs of the era, was made near the Doylestown, Pennsylvania, farmhouse that Sheeler rented from 1910 to 1926. The spare geometry of the board-and-batten barn proved an irresistible subject for an artist eager to explore with a camera the radical formal ideas that had impressed him in the paintings of Cézanne, Picasso, and Braque. A severely cropped, yet elegantly balanced photograph, Bucks County Barn (alternately titled Side of White Barn) is a testament to Sheeler's clarity of vision and ability to distill a scene to its essence-a salient feature of the artist's work in all media.

Artwork Details

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Exhibition History

Title: Bucks County Barn
Artist: Charles Sheeler (American, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1883–1965 Dobbs Ferry, New York)
Date: 1915
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions: Image: 19.5 x 24.5 cm (7 11/16 x 9 5/8 in.)
Sheet: 20.3 x 25.4 cm (8 x 10 in.)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Gilman Collection, Purchase, Denise and Andrew Saul Gift, 2005
Object Number: 2005.100.457
Curatorial Department: Photographs

More Artwork

By Charles Sheeler

In the same medium

From the same time and place

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Roughing Out the First Stage of "Mother and Child", Marble, In Zorach's Studio, Robinhood, Maine, Charles Sheeler American, Gelatin silver print — Roughing Out the First Stage of "Mother and Child", Marble, In Zorach's Studio, Robinhood, Maine
Charles Sheeler
1927

Early Stage of Carving "Mother and Child", Charles Sheeler American, Gelatin silver print — Early Stage of Carving "Mother and Child"
Charles Sheeler
1927

"Mother and Child", Early Stage of Roughing Out with Pointed Chisel, Charles Sheeler American, Gelatin silver print — "Mother and Child", Early Stage of Roughing Out with Pointed Chisel
Charles Sheeler
ca. 1927

"Mother and Child", Detail of Early Stage of Roughing Out with Pointed Chisel, Charles Sheeler American, Gelatin silver print — "Mother and Child", Detail of Early Stage of Roughing Out with Pointed Chisel
Charles Sheeler
ca. 1927

Mother and Child by William Zorach, Charles Sheeler American, Gelatin silver print — Mother and Child by William Zorach
Charles Sheeler
ca. 1930

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