with photography diminished from 1930 onwards
becoming ‘‘only a means to an end...a tool used in
planning paintings’’ (Stebbins, 2002). Although the
artist joined the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York as Senior Research Fellow in Photogra-
phy in 1942, the affiliation was short lived, and he
ended his tenure in 1944. The last decades of Shee-
ler’s life were punctuated with occasional photo-
graphs revisiting old themes but none as radical as
his early work. Sheeler was incapacitated by a
stroke in 1959. He died May 7, 1965.
MarkRawlinsonSeealso:Architectural Photography; Conde ́Nast;
History of Photography: Interwar Years; History of
Photography: Twentieth-Century Pioneers; Indus-
trial Photography; Levy, Julien; Photography in
the United States: the Midwest; Pictorialism; Stei-
chen, Edward; Strand, Paul
Biography
Born Charles Rettew Sheeler, Jr., 1883 in Philadelphia, Penn-
sylviania. Studied at Philadelphia Museum and School of
Industrial Art, 1900–1903, Pennsylvania Academy, 1903–
1906; studied with William Merritt Chase. Acquired cam-
era and began photographing around 1910. Staff photo-
grapher, Conde ́ Nast, 1926; received River Rouge
Commission. Staff photographer Ford Motor Company,
1926–1929. Photographed Chartres Cathedral, 1929.
Senior Research Fellow in Photography, Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York, 1942–1944. Died 7 May 1965.
Individual Exhibitions
1917 Doylestown photographs; Modern Gallery; New
York, New York
1918 African Sculpture photographs; Modern Gallery; New
York, New York
1920 De Zayas Gallery; New York, New York
1939 Charles Sheeler: Paintings, Drawings, Photographs;
Museum of Modern Art; New York
1940 Golden Gate International Exhibition; San Francisco,
California
1953 Art Galleries, University of California; Los Angeles and
traveling to: M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San
Francisco, California; Fort Worth Art Center, Fort
Woth, Texas; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica,
New York; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadel-
phia, Pennsylvania; and San Diego Fine Arts Gallery, San
Diego, California
1966 Downtown Gallery; New York
1968 National Collection of Fine Arts; Washington, D.C.
and traveling to Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadel-
phia, Pennsylvania, and Whitney Museum of American
Art, New York, New York
1987 Charles Sheeler: American Interiors; Yale University
Art Gallery; New Haven, Connecticut
Museum of Fine Arts; Boston, Massachusetts, and trav-
eling to Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,
New York; and Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas
1996 Charles Sheeler in Andover: The Ballardvale Series;Addi-
son Gallery of American Art; Andover, Massachusetts
1997 Charles Sheeler in Doylestown: American Modernism
and the Pennsylvania Tradition; Allentown Art Museum;
Allentown, Pennsylvania, and traveling to Amon Carter
Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, and Cincinnati Art Mu-
seum, Cincinnati, Ohio
2002 The Photography of Charles Sheeler: American Mod-
ernist; Museum of Fine Arts; Boston, Massachusetts and
traveling to Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
New York; Sta ̈delsches Kunstinstitut und Sta ̈dtische
Galerie, Frankfurt, Germany; Detroit Institute of Arts,
Detroit; and Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New
MexicoGroup Exhibitions
1917 Paul Strand, Morton Schamberg, Charles Sheeler;
Modern Gallery; New York, New York
1918 Thirteenth Annual Exhibition of Photographs; John
Wanamaker Company; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1929 Film und Foto: Internationale Ausstellung des
Deutschen Werkbundes, Ausstellungshallen und Ko ̈nig-
baulichtspiele; Stuttgart, Germany
1960 The Precisionist View in American Art; Walker Art
Center; Minneapolis, Minnesota and traveling to Whit-
ney Museum of American Art, New York; Detroit Insti-
tute of Arts; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los
Angeles, California; and the San Francisco Museum of
Art, San Francisco, California
1978 The Rouge: The Image of Industry in Charles Sheeler
and Diego Rivera; The Detroit Institute of Arts; Detroit,
Michigan
1997 Variations on a Theme: American Modernism; Addison
Gallery of American Art; Andover, Massachusetts
1997 Photographien im Dialog; August Sander Archive;
Cologne, GermanySelected Works
Side of White Barn, 1917
Bucks County Barn with Chickens, c. 1915–17
Doylestown House, The Stove, c. 1916–17
African Musical Instrument, c. 1916–17
Katherine, Nudes, c. 1918–19 (series of 10 images)
New York, Park Row Building, 1920
Ford Plant, River Rouge, Criss-Crossed Conveyors, 1927
Ford Plant, River Rouge, Bleeder Stacks, 1927
Chartres, Flying Buttresses, 1929
South Salem, Living Room, 1929
Power Series, View of Boulder Dam, 1939
Power Series, Wheels, 1939Further Reading
Friedman, Martin.The Precisionist View in American Art.
Exhibition Catalogue. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center,
1960.
———.Charles Sheeler. New York: Watson-Guptill Pub-
lications, 1975.
Jacob, Mary Jane, and Linda Downs.The Rouge: The Image
of Industry in the Art of Charles Sheeler and Diego Rivera.
Detroit, Michigan: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1978.SHEELER, CHARLES