Plums 1925

Charles Demuth made this watercolor, titled Plums, most likely in the 1920s or 30s. He captures these fruits and leaves with what seems like a wet on wet technique, allowing the pigments to spread and mingle in a really loose way. The paint is super thin and transparent. Demuth achieves a luminous effect. Look how he suggests the roundness of the plums with just a few strokes of dark red and purple, letting the white of the paper act as highlight. You can almost taste their ripeness, right? The branches and leaves create a kind of dance around the fruit, with a playful energy, almost like notes in a musical score. Demuth’s approach reminds me of John Marin, another watercolorist who was part of the Stieglitz circle, with their shared interest in capturing the energy of modern life through a kind of spontaneous mark making. What I love about this piece, like all good art, is its ambiguity, its openness to multiple readings.