Charles Sheeler produced the 1921 avant-garde film Manhatta, a nine-minute series of vignettes depicting New York City, in collaboration with Paul Strand. Born in Philadelphia in 1883, he navigated a career spanning painting, photography, and sculpture. He became a primary figure of the Precisionist movement, documenting industrial landscapes and architectural forms through a sharp, quasi-photographic aesthetic.
Early Education and Influences
Sheeler attended the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art from 1900 to 1903 before enrolling at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Studying under William Merritt Chase, he focused on drawing and applied arts. Travel in Europe proved pivotal; visits to Italy introduced him to medieval painters like Giotto and Piero della Francesca, while a 1909 excursion to Paris exposed him to the Cubist techniques of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.
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Recognizing the difficulty of earning a living as a modernist painter, Sheeler adopted commercial photography. He learned the craft using a five-dollar Brownie camera, initially focusing on architecture. This professional shift deepened his engagement with industrial imagery, encouraged by the work of his friend Morton Livingston Schamberg. Following Schamberg's death during the 1918 influenza epidemic, Sheeler continued to investigate themes of machinery. He later received commissions from the Ford Motor Company to photograph and paint factory environments, including the River Rouge Plant.
The Fortune Magazine Commission
In 1940, Fortune Magazine commissioned a series of six paintings titled Power. To prepare, Sheeler spent one year traveling to document industrial sites. The final works included Primitive Power, Steam Turbine, Rolling Power, Suspended Power, Yankee Clipper, and Conversation: Sky and Earth. These pieces reflected the magazine's objective to illustrate the human mind through industrial forms.
Institutional Roles and Later Years
From 1942 to 1945, Sheeler served as a senior research fellow in photography for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he documented artworks and historical objects. During this period, he resided in Irvington-on-Hudson with his second wife, Musya Metas Sokolova, whom he married in 1939. Sheeler maintained his creative output into the 1950s with works such as Aerial Gyrations and New England Irrelevancies. He died in 1965 in Dobbs Ferry and was buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
Fast facts
- Born: 1883, Philadelphia
- Died: 1965, Dobbs Ferry
- Movement: Precisionism
- Notable Film: Manhatta (1921)
- Notable Painting: Suspended Power
- Education: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
- Notable Employer: Ford Motor Company
- Burial: Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
Questions readers ask
What was the significance of the film Manhatta?
Created in 1921, it is considered the first avant-garde film produced in America and was later selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Did Sheeler work for museums during his career?
Yes, he worked for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in their Department of Publications from 1942 to 1945 as a senior research fellow.
Achievements
- Notable work: Suspended Power
- Movement: Precisionism
