Big Wheel, 1911
Oil on board
7 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches
Biography
Arthur Beecher Carles, born in 1892 in Philadelphia, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts under the direction of William Merritt Chase, who served as an important early influence for Carles. In 1905 he was awarded a scholarship which enabled him to travel to Paris, where he was particularly inspired by the work of the Fauves, in addition to Cezanne’s landscapes, and began to explore what would be an important career as a brilliant colorist. The subject of a retrospective at GRAHAM in 1959, Carles was a skilled painter whose oeuvre encompassed a broad range of subjects, from evocative portraits to cubist-inspired abstractions. His expressive use of color and his role as an envoy for artistic ideas between Philadelphia and Paris have led many to regard him as a precursor to the Abstract Expressionists. Sadly, a stroke in 1941 left him paralyzed and unable to paint. Further creative development between 1941 and his death in 1952 would have likely catapulted him to the forefront of the New York School.
