Kitchen of Governor’s Palace, Williamsburg, Va. belongs to a series of works Charles Sheeler created during a two-month stay in Williamsburg, Virginia from December 1935 to February 1936. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, noted collects or and philanthropist, invited the artist to document the Rockefeller-funded restoration of the Colonial Williamsburg that had been completed the previous year. Mrs. Rockefeller wished to commemorate the success of the project and invited Sheeler to spend t.mes painting and photographing the historic grounds. The photographs from this period have unfortunately been lost, but the visit spawned the creation of the present work, which was acquired by Sheeler’s gallerist, Edith Halpert, along with three oil paintings that Mrs. Rockefeller subsequently purchased, including Kitchen Williamsburg (1937, Replica Handbags s Museums of San Francisco, Fig. 1).

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1883, Sheeler later attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Replica Handbags s from 1903-1906 where he studied under notable American Impressionist, William Merritt Chase. Following graduation, he co-founded his first studio with fellow classmate, Morton Schamberg in 1908. A year later, the two artists traveled to Europe to experience the “elegant formalism of the Italian Renaissance paintings, the ferment of modernism, the radical manifestation of Picasso and Braque’s analytical cubism, and the Fauve expressionism of Matisse” (Encyclopedia of World Biography, Gale eBooks, Detroit, Michigan, 2004). However, it was Sheeler’s encounter with analytic cubism that had the most significant impact on his work. In 1910, Sheeler and Schamberg rented a home in Doylestown, Pennsylvania where Sheeler first experimented with photography and began work as a commercial photographer. Although he perceived this work as simply a source of income, the medium became integral to his painting process.

Sheeler was continuously inspired by his early Cubist encounters and commercial photography career, and successfully combined these influences to create Kitchen of Governor’s Palace, Williamsburg, Va. The present work depicts the interior of the preindustrial American kitchen with special attention to order. Every utensil, bowl and cup has an intentional place that not only reflects the simplistic order presented in many of Sheeler’s compositions but also pays homage to the simplicity of American life before the Machine Age. Sheeler’s deep appreciation for early American furniture and decorative arts manifests itself in Kitchen of Governor’s Palace, Williamsburg, Va. The artist noted, “No embellishment.mes ets the eye. Beauty of line and proportion through excellence of craftsmanship make the absence of ornament in no way an omission” (quoted in J. Murphy, “Charles Sheeler,” Heilbrunn t.mes line of Art History. New York, 2000, n.p.). As is beautifully demonstrated in Kitchen of Governor’s Palace, Williamsburg, Va., Sheeler’s interiors are representative of the clean craftsmanship and colonial past of America’s history viewed through the artist’s distinctively modern lens.