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b. 1883, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
d. 1965, Dobbs Ferry, New York

Born in Philadelphia, Charles Sheeler was a leading figure in the modernist style known as Precisionism that arose in the United States after WWI. Sheeler’s artistic education began in industrial drawing and the applied arts at the School of Industrial Art in Philadelphia in 1900. He continued his education at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1903, where he studied under American Impressionist William Merritt Chase. While travelling abroad in Europe in 1908, Sheeler deepened his appreciation for Renaissance masters like Giotto and exposure to Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, which inspired his early Cubist experiments.

During the 1910s, Sheeler moved to Doylestown, Pennsylvania where he taught himself the technical skills of photography and worked as a freelance photographer. He captured local architecture with a sharp, structural clarity that became integral to his artistic style. His photographs of barns and the interiors of his Doylestown home informed his paintings, merging realism with modernist abstraction. Throughout the decade, Sheeler gained recognition in the art world, exhibited in the 1913 Armory Show and formed lasting professional relationships with key figures including Alfred Stieglitz.

In 1920, Sheeler collaborated with Paul Strand on the short film Manhatta which showcased his fascination with urbanization and the rapidly changing cityscape––a motif Sheeler would explore further in his personal paintings and photographs. Sheeler’s 1927 commission to photograph Ford’s River Rouge Plant cemented his reputation as a leading precisionist, leading to a series of paintings that celebrated the power and precision of American industry. During the 1930s, his focus shifted towards painting, in which he received prestigious commissions, including a series on "Power" for Fortune magazine in 1939. From 1942 to 1945, Sheeler worked for the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of Publications, photographing a wide range of works from the collection.

In his later years, Sheeler’s work became increasingly abstract, layering multiple perspectives into distilled, geometric compositions. In 1959, a stroke ended his artistic career. Sheeler left behind a body of work that defined the balance between modern industry and artistic tradition, capturing the spirit of a mechanized yet deeply structured American landscape.