In Vaudeville c. 1916

Curator: This watercolor by Charles Demuth is titled "In Vaudeville." It resides here at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: Immediately, I feel this sense of precarious balance, of bodies defying gravity, a lightness that belies the strength required. Curator: Precisely. Demuth uses translucent washes to evoke the fleeting nature of performance, where each gesture, each pose, is ephemeral. The composition is carefully structured. Editor: It’s as though he’s captured a single, breathless moment, a kind of poetic suspension amid the razzle-dazzle. I'd love to know more about the performers and imagine what they were thinking. Curator: Perhaps he sought to distill the essence of the act, not necessarily a literal depiction, but an emotional resonance through form and color. Editor: I think so. Demuth gives us just enough, inviting our imaginations to fill in the rest. A memory play as much as a visual record.