Charles Sheeler: Painting American Destinations

American Landscape, 1930

Born on this day in 1883, Charles Sheeler became one of the founding members of the Modernist arts in the United States. He was trained as a draftsman as well as an artist and comfortable in the world of photography as well as paint on canvas. If we were to use one word to describe his work, it would be "precision."

A class visit to the Phillips Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in the early 1970s introduced me to the artist. I've had a growing appreciation of his his interpretations since then especially through a career focusing on the nation's finest natural and cultural landscapes. Here are more examples of Sheeler's work. 

Pertaining to Yachts and Yachting, 1933

Yankee Clipper, 1939

Golden Gate, 1953

I favor a picture which arrives at its destination without the evidence of a trying journey rather than one which shows the marks of battle.

                                                                                     Charles Sheeler