Oil Paint
Oil paint is a slow-drying art medium made with pigment and a drying-oil binder that allows extended working time, smooth blending, and layered application.
Painter
Charles Sheeler
Charles Sheeler was an American Precisionist painter known for sharply defined factories, industrial machinery, interiors, and architectural forms.
Charles Sheeler quick facts
Sheeler used photographs of industrial sites and American interiors to develop paintings that reduce familiar objects to ordered geometric forms.
| Born | 1883 · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
|---|---|
| Died | 1965 · Dobbs Ferry, New York, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Movements | Precisionism; American Modernism |
| Paint types | Oil Paint · Gouache Paint |
| Painting surfaces | Canvas · Paper |
| Painting methods | Tightly organized geometric compositions, smooth oil handling, and paintings or gouache studies developed from carefully framed photographs |
| Common subjects | Factories, grain elevators, industrial equipment, American furniture, barns, and modern architecture |
| Notable works | Americana · River Rouge Plant · American Landscape · Water |
| Related practice | Architectural and industrial photography directly informed his painted compositions |
Sources: The Met: Charles Sheeler and Precisionism, The Met: Americana, oil on canvas, The Met: Water, oil on canvas, The Met: American Interior, gouache on paper, Whitney: Charles Sheeler.
Paint types used
Sheeler's large industrial and interior paintings used oil, while the Met documents gouache-and-graphite studies of his precisely observed interiors.
Gouache Paint
Gouache paint is an opaque, water-based art medium made with pigment and a water-soluble binder, drying to a matte finish that can be reactivated with water.
Surface types used
Sheeler painted finished oils on canvas, including Americana and Water, and created architectural and interior studies in gouache on paper.
Canvas
Canvas is a woven fabric support, commonly cotton or linen, used for painting and sold either raw or prepared with a compatible ground layer.
Paper
Paper is an absorbent sheet material made from pressed fibers, with weight, sizing, and surface texture controlling moisture tolerance and paint behavior.
Painters similar to Charles Sheeler
Hopper also used strong architectural geometry in American scenes, while Braque's Cubism helps explain Sheeler's flattened, ordered planes.
Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper was an American realist known for city interiors, roadside buildings, coastal landscapes, and compositions shaped by strong light and geometric forms.
Georges Braque
Georges Braque was a French painter who helped develop Cubism, combining fragmented still lifes with textured oil paint, stenciling, and paper collage.