Spring

Spring — Charles Demuth. 1921.

Medium: Oil and graphite on canvas. Dimensions: 56.2 × 61.3 cm (22 1/8 × 24 1/8 in.).

Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

In Spring Charles Demuth depicted the sample cards used to advertise new spring fabrics. Pablo Picasso was the first to create such painted collages—a practice called Synthetic Cubism. Although Demuth saw examples of the style in both New York and Paris, he only experimented with it once, in this work. Here his subject allowed him to construct the ideal modernist painting by using overlapping planes that remain faithful to the canvas’s inherent flatness. However, the sample cards also connect his picture to everyday concerns. By titling his painting Spring , Demuth wryly highlighted the new reality of American life, in which the changing of seasons was heralded not by nature but by commerce.

Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.