Harry Deitch, Philadelphia Precisionism

Harry Deitch, Philadelphia Precisionism - 20th Century Artist

Harry Deitch rose to regional prominence in the late 1930s. By 1940 his works had been exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Chicago Art Institute, and had an art show at Warwick Galleries in Philadelphia. He was designing dust jackets for the literary trade while serving as a graphic artist. He attended the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art where he was recognized for his drawing skills in 1927, and graduated in 1930. This school was established in 1876 and today is known as the University of the Arts, and the museum is now the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

While there is limited information on Deitch, his preferred medium was watercolor. Clearly during his years in school he was greatly influenced by the precisionist art movements used by Joseph Stella and Charles Sheeler, both prominent artists in the mid to late 20's. Photography was also a growing medium during this period, which influenced American art. It was a stark contrast to the impressionists.

"Warehouse on the Pier"
Watercolor on Paper
Approx. 16" X 12"
Signed LLC: Harry Deitch

Deitch’s watercolor, illustrates warehouses on the pier not far from his Philadelphia residence at 903 Clinton Street. This industrial scene has storage tanks, working warehouses with sharply defined simplified forms. The buildings are created on the paper with layered perspective and limited dimension. Around the pier, workers are going throughout their workday, and yes if you look closely, there is a horse and a black carriage on the dock. The wooden river pilasters reach from the pier down to sailboats in the center of the composition. The overall scene appears sunny, but in the background, gray haze bellows from the refinery smog.

Detail of Watercolor
Horse and Carriage - above on the left

Watercolor is a fluid medium, and one wrong stroke in a vital spot can render a painting irreparable. So Deitch provided a drawing on the rough watercolor paper first and upon close inspection, you can see pencil lines. There are enough pencil lines to add to the composition and enough lines to direct the paint brush. In the center of the composition is an orange roof, to the left are red window shades, and just below that at an angle are two sailboats that are red. Here, the artist works to have the viewer’s eyes bounce around the composition and take in the entire painting. This is artistic genius.

As part of the precisionist movement, the composition has carefully rendered industrial buildings and in keeping with the movement, people, and in this case a horse with the carriage is rendered by small brush strokes signifying the people, the horse, and the carriage. All these elements are insignificant in precisionism, it is all about industrialization, therefore the buildings and the storage tanks are emphasized. The following is a 1937 exhibit review:

“Harry Deitch, young Philadelphia water colorist exhibiting at the Warwick Galleries, is a painter in bright and pure color. Form has been simplified to allow the fullest possible use of the purples, greens, and blues in which he recreates the mountain ranges of the west and the street and harbor scenes of the New England coast.”

If you have further information on Harry Deitch, we would love to hear from you. Waller-Yoblonsky Fine Art Blog.

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