Sheeler, Charles
American (1883-1965)

PUBLISHED TITLE: Bucks County Barn

ca. 1916
gelatin silver print
19.1 x 23.9 cm.
Museum Purchase
GEH NEG: 3862
81:1758:0021

OLD GEH NUMBER: 8468-21

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES:
Rourke, Constance. --Charles Sheeler: Artist in the American Tradition.-- New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1938. p. 189.//
Newhall, Beaumont. --The History of Photography from 1839 to Present.-- Museum of Modern Art, 1964. p. 122.//
Friedman, Martin. --Charles Sheeler.-- New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1975. p. 27.//
Stebbins, Theodore E. & Keyes, Norman, Jr. --Charles Sheeler: The Photographs.-- Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1987. pl. 21.//
Mulligan, Therese & Wooters, David. --Photography from 1839 to today: George Eastman House, Rochester, NY.-- Cologne: Taschen, 1999. p. 477.//

EXHIBITION HISTORY:
"Film und Foto", Germany, Stuttgart, Wuertt Kunstverein, March - October, 1979.//
""Permanent" Survey Exhibition - 19th Century", US, NY, Rochester, GEH - Second Floor Galleries, August 1979 - March 1984, 1979.//
"Precisionist Works on Paper", US, NY, Ithaca, Herbert F. Johnson Museum, November 8 - December 21, 1986.//
"Language of Light: Masterworks from the Collection", US, NY, Rochester, GEH - Brackett Clark Gallery, January 25, 1991 - March 22, 1992.//
"Language of Light: Masterworks from the Collection (reinstallation)", US, NY, Rochester, GEH - Brackett Clark Gallery, September 18, 1993 - June 5, 1994.//
"Language of Light: Masterworks from the George Eastman House Collection", Japan, Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, November 18, 1995 - January ??, 1996.//
"Through The Lens", US, NY, Rochester, GEH - North Gallery, June 22, 1996 -.//

INSCRIPTION: mount recto-(signed) "Charles Sheeler"

NOTES: Catalogued 7/86, DZ. updated 11/90, MMC. Both Stebbins and Rourke title it "Side of White Barn" and date it at 1917. Newhall, in his 1964 and 1982 editions, titles the image as "Bucks County Barn", and dates it as 1916. Alternate title from --The History of Photography--, 1964 & 1982 editions. "...the work in question has been honored with several titles, and similarity it has been dated 1915, 1916, and 1917. When Sheeler exhibited the work, he either left it untitled, or called it 'Pennsylvania Barn'; however, he also called a number of other images 'Pennsylvania Barn'. Regarding the date, there is no print of the work which is dated in Sheeler's hand. In our book, Keyes and I studied the Buck's County photographs extensively, and concluded that the most likely date for the series in 1917. 1915 is almost surely too early, but 1916 or 1918 are both arguable. In our book we should have put our circa 1917, as there is not absolute evidence that it was executed that year." [Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., MFA-Boston, 8/7/95]

SUBJECT: architecture, barn