Arthur Beecher Carles

Arthur Beecher Carles (March 9, 1882 – 1952) was an American modernist painter. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and won the Cresson Traveling Scholarship in 1905 and 1906. He traveled to France and was influenced by Impressionism through the social network of Gertrude Stein and Leo Stein. He taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1917 to 1925. He had several one-man art exhibits including at 291, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Pennsylvania Museum of Art. After his death, his art was exhibited at multiple museums.

Early life and education Carles was born in Pennsylvania in 1882 and was raised in Philadelphia. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts between 1900 and 1907. He studied with Hugh Breckenridge, Henry McCarter, Cecilia Beaux, and William Merritt Chase. He was an admirer of Édouard Manet and James McNeill Whistler. He won the Henry P. Thouron prize in 1903 for his painting He accepted a commission from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia to create a copy of Raphael's Transfiguration. During World War I, he directed the camouflage painting of Navy ships at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

He taught at PAFA from 1917 to 1925 and was a proponent of modernism. Premiering at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the film highlights Carles's influence on early 20th-century American modernism through archival photographs, readings from his personal letters, and commentary from Philadelphia art scholars and museum leaders.

Personal life He married Mercedes de Cordoba in 1909 and they were divorced in 1926. Their daughter, Mercedes Matter was a painter and writer. Carles re-married Caroline Robinson in 1927 and they had a daughter also named Caroline. His sister, Sara Carles Johns, was an artist and fashion illustrator.

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