Artist Biography

Arthur B. Carles

(1882 - 1952)

Table of Contents

    Arthur B. Carles was a celebrated American modernist whose vivid colors and bold forms were influenced by French Impressionism and paved the way for the abstract expressionist movement in the United States. He was a member of Alfred Stieglitz’s circle and was also instrumental in bringing and establishing an interest in modern art to Philadelphia during the 1930s.

    By Chelsea DeLay

    I. Biography

    Arthur Beecher Carles Jr. was born in Pennsylvania in 1882 and grew up in Philadelphia, where he graduated from high school in 1900. That winter, Carles enrolled as a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) on a scholarship and studied with William Merritt Chase, Thomas Anshutz, and Celia Beaux. During the seven years that Carles studied at PAFA, his approach was heavily influenced by the teachings of Chase, who introduced the young artist to the painterly technique favored by Diego Velázquez, Édouard Manet, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, and John Singer Sargent.[1] Carles’s early pieces impressed his teachers with his bold use of color and texture and earned the budding artist several student awards: he received the Henry P. Thouron prize in 1903, the sought-after William Emlen Cresson Short-Term Traveling Scholarship in 1905 and 1907 (which funded trips to France, Spain, and England), and also won first prize in the Charles Toppan competition at the end of his last semester as a student. In 1907, when the last payment from his traveling scholarship threatened to end his stay in Europe, Carles was able to extend his time abroad by accepting a commission from Philadelphia’s St. Paul’s Episcopal Church to make a copy of Raphael’s Transfiguration, which was located in Vatican City.[2]

    Carles delayed heading to Rome to work on the Transfiguration commission and chose instead to remain in Paris; he frequented the apartment of Gertrude and Leo Stein, where he was moved by the expressive approach seen in works by the Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso. Other American artists in France at the time included John Marin, Edward Steichen, and Alfred H. Maurer, all of whom Carles met and became acquainted with. He became closest with Steichen who introduced him to the small town of Voulangis in 1908, where Carles spent the summer experimenting with vivid colors and dramatic forms as he painted picturesque scenes of the surrounding French landscape.[3] Carles finally arrived in Rome the following year and his completed, full-sized copy of Raphael’s Transfiguration was unveiled at Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church in 1911, shortly after making his stateside return earlier that month in December.

    He remained friends with the American modernists he first met while in Paris and was introduced to Alfred Stieglitz in 1912 by Steichen; Carles subsequently became a member of the Stieglitz circle, and was offered a one-man exhibition at the “291” gallery the same year.[4] For Carles, this was the first of many solo exhibitions throughout his entire career, which included shows at Montross Gallery, The Art Institute of Chicago, Philadelphia’s Cosmopolitan Club, Gimbel Galleries, and Philadelphia Museum of Art. He accepted a teaching position at the PAFA in 1917, and the following year he applied his artistic abilities toward the war effort when he was hired by the Philadelphia Navy Yard to direct the camouflage painting of ships.[5]

    During the 1920s, Philadelphia experienced a cultural renaissance in which Carles played an important role; he was instrumental in bringing three landmark exhibitions of modern art to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1920, 1921, and 1923 respectively.[6] The success of these three shows imbued Carles with a creative high that sparked a renewed interest in abstraction; he returned to Voulangis in the summer of 1921, where he again found inspiration in the French countryside and gardens. Montross Gallery held an exhibition of his work produced on this trip, and audiences commended his vibrant colors and expressive range of technique.

    Carles’s life took an unexpected turn in 1925: he was let go from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts after receiving numerous reprimands from the faculty for missing classes and also filed for divorce from his wife Mercedes, with whom he had only lived with for short periods since their 1909 wedding.[7] Carles refocused his artistic attention from female nudes to dazzling floral–still lifes for the next two years, but spiraled into a deep depression after his mother’s death in 1927. In the 1930s, he channeled his feelings of loneliness and depression into his later works—darker, abstracted pieces that reflected his growing interest in the cubist approach. Always a modernist, the work Carles produced in the last active years of his career earned him the reputation as one of our country’s leading abstract expressionists. Sadly, he was hospitalized more and more frequently as the 1930s progressed for reasons associated with alcoholism; in 1941, a fall tragically left him partially paralyzed and unable to paint. Carles was confined to a wheelchair for remainder of his life and passed away in 1952 at the Fairview Nursing Home in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania.

    After his death, his work continued to be highlighted in the United States and internationally in important shows and solo exhibitions, including those at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, The Museum of Modern Art, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Palais des Beaux Arts, Parrish Art Museum, The Royal Scottish Academy, and Whitney Museum of American Art.

    II. Chronology

    • 1882 Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    • 1900–1907 Studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
    • 1904 First time exhibiting work, at the Philadelphia Watercolor Exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
    • 1905 Awarded the William Emlen Cresson Short-Term Traveling Scholarship by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; travels to England, France, and Spain with classmate George Oberteuffer
    • 1907 Awarded the William Emlen Cresson Short-Term Traveling Scholarship by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; in June receives commission from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church paint a copy of Raphael’s Transfiguration in the Vatican Gallery in Rome; travels from New York to Paris, visits apartment of Leo and Gertrude Stein, meets John Marin
    • 1908 While in France, founds New Society of American Artists in Paris with Patrick Henry Bruce, Marin, Alfred H. Maurer, Edward Steichen, and Max Weber; moves to French village of Voulangis; proposes to Mercedes de Cordoba
    • 1909 Spends the spring in Rome working on the Transfiguration commission from the Episcopal Church; marries Mercedes de Cordova in Paris on July 22
    • 1910 Returns to Philadelphia in December
    • 1911 Unveils finished copy of Transfiguration at Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church
    • 1912 First one-man show at Stieglitz’s “291” Gallery in New York City; leaves Paris to return to the United States
    • 1913 Returned to Philadelphia, exhibits at the International Exhibition of Modern Art, famously known as the Armory Show; daughter Mercedes is born on December 6
    • 1914 Invited to be juror for the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Fellowship Prize competition
    • 1915 Begins experimenting with etchings and monographs
    • 1917 Accepts teaching position at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts as instructor of drawing and painting
    • 1918 Directed paintings of ships’ camouflage at the Philadelphia Navy Yard
    • 1919 Visits Maine
    • 1921 Travels to Paris with his wife and daughter in the summer, they stay at Edward Steichen’s house in the village of Voulangis
    • 1922 Returns to the United States and visits John Marin in Maine during the summer; separates from wife Mercedes; positive response to Voulangis scenes results in second one-man exhibition in December at Montross Gallery in New York
    • 1925 Dismissed from the faculty of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; teaches private classes, divorces from wife
    • 1927 Marries his second wife, Caroline Robinson on April 4 in Philadelphia; death of mother Janet Buchanan Carles in autumn; daughter Caroline born December 6
    • 1928 Teaches summer classes in Atlantic City, New Jersey, begins to experiment with cubist principles
    • 1929 Travels to France in the spring with wife Caroline and daughter, reside in Voulangis through autumn
    • 1930 The Marseillaise purchased for $5,000 by twenty-five subscribers for the new Philadelphia Museum of Art; rents studio in Paris
    • 1931 Returns to Philadelphia in the spring, spends time with Matisse, who was working on the lunettes for the Barnes Foundation; resides on Steamboat Wharf in Nantucket, Massachusetts with wife and daughter
    • 1932 Moves family to studio in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania
    • 1933 Becomes close with Hans Hoffman, whose daughter Mercedes was studying with him in New York
    • 1934 Spends summer with Hofmann and Mercedes in Gloucester, Massachusetts
    • 1935 First one-man show in Philadelphia at the Cosmopolitan Club
    • 1936 Major solo exhibition at Marie Harriman Gallery in New York; invited to join American Abstract Artists in New York
    • 1938 Hospitalized several times throughout year
    • 1940 Meets Fernand Léger in Philadelphia and New York; first solo exhibition at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
    • 1941 Visited by Marin in November; partially paralyzed after falling down the stairs in his studio and confined to wheelchair, unable to paint
    • 1946 Admitted to Fairview Nursing Home in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania
    • 1952 Passes away at Fairview Nursing Home in mid-June
    • 1953 Memorial exhibition co-sponsored by Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Philadelphia Museum of Art

    III. Collections

    • Albright-Knox Art Gallery, New York
    • The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
    • Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
    • Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware
    • Everson Museum of Art, New York
    • Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
    • The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
    • Newark Museum, New Jersey
    • New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut
    • Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    • Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
    • The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
    • Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona
    • San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California
    • Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska—Lincoln
    • Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
    • The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
    • Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
    • Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

    IV. Exhibitions

    • 1904–09, 1911, 1913, 1915, 1917–21, 1923–24, 1930, 1933, 1936, 1939, 1940–46, 1953, 1955, 1958–60, 1966, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1979 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Henry P. Thouron prize, 1903; Charles Toppan prize, Honorable Mention, 1905; First Toppan prize, 1907; John Lambert Prize, 1915; Lippincott prize, 1917; Stotesbury prize, 1919; Joseph E. Temple gold medal, 1930; J. Henry Scheidt Memorial Prize, 1939; solo exhibitions, 1940, 1966, 1972; memorial exhibition, 1953
    • 1910 “291” Gallery, New York, New York
    • 1912 “291” Gallery, New York, New York, solo exhibition
    • 1913 The International Exhibition of Modern Art, New York, New York
    • The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, Norman Wait Harris Bronze medal
    • Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio
    • 1914 National Arts Club, New York, New York
    • 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California, silver medal
    • The Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri
    • 1916 San Francisco Art Association, California
    • Montross Gallery, New York, New York
    • Charcoal Club, Baltimore, Maryland
    • The Art Club of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    • 1917 The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
    • 1919 Sketch Club, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    • Art Alliance, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    • Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
    • Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio
    • Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri
    • Musée Nationale de Luxembourg, Paris, France
    • 1921 The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
    • 1922 Montross Galleries, New York, New York, solo exhibition
    • 1923 The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, solo exhibition
    • Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
    • 1924 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
    • Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
    • 1925 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
    • 1926 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
    • Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
    • 1927 Grand Central Art Galleries, New York, New York
    • Wildenstein Galleries, New York, New York
    • The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, Potter Palmer gold medal
    • 1928 Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Ohio
    • The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, Logan Medal, Purchase Prize
    • 1929 The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
    • 1930 The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
    • 1931 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
    • The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
    • 1932 Mellon Galleries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    • Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
    • 1933 Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts
    • The Philadelphia Art Club, Pennsylvania, gold medal
    • The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
    • Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
    • Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
    • The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
    • 1934 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
    • The Arts Club of Chicago, Illinois
    • The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
    • Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
    • Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
    • 1935 Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
    • Cosmopolitan Club, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, solo exhibition
    • Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
    • The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
    • Gimbel Galleries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, solo exhibition
    • 1936 Marie Harriman Gallery, New York New York, solo exhibition
    • The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
    • The Philadelphia Art Club, Pennsylvania, gold medal
    • 1937 Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C
    • The Philadelphia Art Club, Pennsylvania
    • 1939 World’s Fair, New York, New York
    • Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, California
    • Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C
    • The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
    • 1941 Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Seattle Art Museum, Washington; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California, traveling exhibition
    • 1942 Philadelphia Museum of Modern Art, Pennsylvania
    • Woodmere Art Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, solo exhibition
    • The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
    • Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
    • 1944 Philadelphia Art Alliance, Pennsylvania, solo exhibition, Philadelphia Art Alliance medal of achievement
    • Nierendorf Gallery, New York, New York, solo exhibition
    • Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio
    • 1945 Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C
    • California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, California
    • 1946 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, solo exhibition
    • 1948 Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado
    • 1949 The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
    • National Philatelic Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    • 1950 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
    • 1951 The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
    • 1953 The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
    • Dubin Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, solo exhibition
    • 1954 The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
    • 1955 Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio, solo exhibition
    • The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
    • 1957 James Graham & Sons, New York, New York
    • Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Maine
    • American Federation of Art, traveling exhibition
    • 1958 Dubin Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, solo exhibition
    • Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
    • Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado
    • 1959 Graham Galleries, New York, New York, retrospective
    • The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, Pennsylvania
    • Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Maine
    • Allentown Art Museum, Pennsylvania
    • 1960 Walter Baum Galleries, Sellersville, Pennsylvania, solo exhibition
    • Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Maine
    • 1961 Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California
    • 1962 Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama
    • 1963 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
    • Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
    • Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
    • American Federation of Art, traveling exhibition
    • 1964 The Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland
    • 1966 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, solo exhibition
    • Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
    • California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, California
    • 1967 Graham Gallery, New York, New York
    • 1968 Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
    • Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
    • 1969 Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
    • Graham Gallery, New York, New York, retrospective
    • 1970 Dallas Museum of Art, Texas
    • Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, solo exhibition
    • 1971 Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida
    • Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska
    • 1972 Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware
    • The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
    • Janet Fleisher and David David Galleries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, solo exhibition
    • 1973 Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
    • The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, New York
    • 1974 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
    • 1975 Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware
    • Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
    • Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, solo exhibition
    • Janet Fleisher Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, retrospective
    • Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
    • 1976 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
    • 1977 The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland
    • Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France
    • The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
    • Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
    • Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York
    • Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Germany
    • 1978 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; Everson Museum of Art, New York; Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, traveling exhibition
    • 1979 Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma
    • 1982 Washburn Gallery, New York, New York
    • 1983–1984 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; National Academy of Design, New York, New York, traveling exhibition
    • 1984 Washburn Gallery, New York, New York, solo exhibition
    • 1997 Richard York Gallery, New York, New York, solo exhibition
    • 2000 Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, New York; Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, traveling exhibition

    V. Memberships

    • American Abstract Artists, 1936
    • New Society of American Artists in Paris, 1908, founding member

    VI. Notes

    1. Barbara A. Wolanin, Arthur B. Carles: Painting with Color (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1983), 24.
    2. Arthur B. Carles (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1970), 144.
    3. Barbara A. Wolanin, “Arthur B. Carles,” The Advent of Modernism: Post-Impressionism and North American Art, 1900–1918 (Atlanta, Georgia: The High Museum of Art, 1986), 75.
    4. Ibid.
    5. The Orchestration of Color: The Paintings of Arthur B. Carles (New York, New York: Hollis Taggart Galleries, 2000), 48.
    6. Wolanin, Arthur B. Carles: Painting with Color, 71.
    7. Ibid., 84.

    VII. Suggested Resources

    • Arthur B. Carles. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1970.
    • Falk, Peter Hastings, ed. Who Was Who in American Art, 1564–1975: 400 Years of Artists in America. Vol. 1, A–F. Madison, Connecticut: Sound View Press, 1999.
    • The Orchestration of Color: The Paintings of Arthur B. Carles. New York, New York: Hollis Taggart Galleries, 2000.
    • Wolanin, Barbara A. Arthur B. Carles: Painting with Color. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1983.

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