Side of White Barn
1917
Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
overall: 19.5 x 24.3 cm (7 11/16 x 9 9/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
New Century Fund
Accession Number
1998.19.4
Art Historical Context
Charles Sheeler's *Side of White Barn*1917) captures the stark geometry and weathered elegance of rural American architecture in the Pennsylvania countryside. As one of the pioneering figures in Precisionism—a modernist movement celebrating industrial and vernacular forms—Sheeler photographed barns like this one during his early career, drawn to their simple, monumental shapes. Created amid the upheavals of World War, the image reflects a quiet patriotism, turning everyday farm structures into icons of enduring American identity. Printed as a gelatin silver print, a versatile early-20th-centu...
About the Artist
Charles Sheeler
Charles Sheeler (1883–1965), born Charles Rettew Sheeler Jr. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, began his artistic training at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art from 1900 to 1903, where he studied industrial drawing and applied arts. He continued at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1903 to 1906, studying under the Impressionist painter William Merritt Chase. Trips to Europ...