Still Life with Iris in a Bowl

Attributed to Arthur Beecher Carles (1882–1952)

ca. 1927

Gouache and watercolor on paper

Gift of Sewell C. Biggs; 1996.6

Arthur Carles studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. From 1907 to 1910 he painted in France. Impressed by fauvist painters such as Henri Mattise (1869–1954), Carles became a leading modernist painter in Philadelphia. Carles exhibited his work at the infamous gallery known as 291, which was Alfred Stieglitz’s showcase for modern artists of Europe and America. Carles also exhibited his work in The Armory Show of 1913. He is primarily remembered for his abstract still-life and figure studies.