The Alfred Stieglitz Collection
  • Menu
  • Objects
  • Resources
  • About
>
  • Objects
  • Works on Paper
  • Sculpture
  • Paintings
  • Artists
    • Kota
    • Baule
    • Paul Cézanne
    • Charles Demuth
    • Arthur Garfield Dove
    • Charles Duncan
    • Wanda Gág
    • George Grosz
    • Marsden Hartley
    • Bernard Karfiol
    • Benjamin Kopman
    • Stanton Macdonald-Wright
    • Manolo
    • John Marin
    • Alfred Henry Maurer
    • Kenneth Hayes Miller
    • Elie Nadelman
    • Georgia O’Keeffe
    • Jules Pascin
    • Attributed to Pablo Picasso
    • Pierre-Auguste Renoir
    • Diego Rivera
    • Gino Severini
    • Charles Sheeler
    • Paul Signac
    • Théophile Alexandre Steinlen
    • Maurice Sterne
    • Florine Stettheimer
    • Alfred Stieglitz
    • Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
    • Unknown
    • Abraham Walkowitz
Radiator Building—Night, New York
Georgia O’Keeffe

Radiator Building—Night, New York

Painting No. 3
Marsden Hartley

Painting No. 3

Portrait of Alfred Stieglitz
Florine Stettheimer

Portrait of Alfred Stieglitz

Vase of Flowers
Marsden Hartley

Vase of Flowers

Le sucrier et les bougies (Sugar Bowl and Candles)
Diego Rivera

Le sucrier et les bougies (Sugar Bowl and Candles)

Still Life No. 1
Marsden Hartley

Still Life No. 1

Girl in Red Dress
Alfred Henry Maurer

Girl in Red Dress

Calla Lilies (Bert Savoy)
Charles Demuth

Calla Lilies (Bert Savoy)

Movement No. 6, Provincetown
Marsden Hartley

Movement No. 6, Provincetown

Flying Backbone
Georgia O’Keeffe

Flying Backbone

Something in Brown, Carmine, and Blue
Arthur Garfield Dove

Something in Brown, Carmine, and Blue

Movement No. 7, Provincetown
Marsden Hartley

Movement No. 7, Provincetown

Femme et enfant (Woman and Child)
Gino Severini

Femme et enfant (Woman and Child)

Moon
Arthur Garfield Dove

Moon

New Mexico No. 2
Marsden Hartley

New Mexico No. 2

Tête de femme (Woman’s Head)
Attributed to Pablo Picasso

Tête de femme (Woman’s Head)

Yellow, Blue, and Violet
Arthur Garfield Dove

Yellow, Blue, and Violet

Beau Blanc, St. Jeannet
Marsden Hartley

Beau Blanc, St. Jeannet

Femme assise dans un square (Woman Sitting in a Square)
Gino Severini

Femme assise dans un square (Woman Sitting in a Square)

Swinging in the Park (There Were Colored People There)
Arthur Garfield Dove

Swinging in the Park (There Were Colored People There)

Nude and Figure
Bernard Karfiol

Nude and Figure

Painting No. 69
Marsden Hartley

Painting No. 69

Abstraction—Landscape
Charles Duncan

Abstraction—Landscape

Spring Synchromy
Stanton Macdonald-Wright

Spring Synchromy

Portrait—Bear
Benjamin Kopman

Portrait—Bear

Maine Landscape, Autumn No. 13 (recto); Untitled (verso)
Marsden Hartley

Maine Landscape, Autumn No. 13 (recto); Untitled (verso)

Red Tree and Sun
Arthur Garfield Dove

Red Tree and Sun

Girl Seated
Jules Pascin

Girl Seated

Landscape No. 19
Marsden Hartley

Landscape No. 19

<
Calla Lilies (Bert Savoy)

Charles Demuth

1883 - 1935

Calla Lilies (Bert Savoy)

1927

Oil on composition board
41 x 47 1/2 in. (104.1 x 120.7 cm)
Framed: 46 x 52 x 1 1/2 in. (116.8 x 132.1 x 3.8 cm)


Demuth painted “poster portraits” of friends during the 1920s, including O’Keeffe, Arthur Dove, and Charles Duncan. The paintings depict their subjects through symbolic elements that refer to their lives. Bert Savoy was a famous female impersonator in New York vaudeville who died in 1923 when struck by lightning on a beach in Long Island. The shell and wave refer to the beach, and calla lilies are traditionally associated with funerals.

Demuth often included the name of his subjects on his poster portraits, but omitted Savoy’s, disguising his identity just as the actor hid his biological gender on stage. Calla lilies are also used in weddings, representing the union of male and female, which would also have been appropriate for Savoy. Viewers unfamiliar with Savoy and his death would experience the painting simply as a lyrical still life, but those able to read the codes would discover the actor’s identity and understand the reference to his, and Demuth’s, homosexuality.