The modernist Arthur Beecher Carles was born in Philadelphia and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under William Merritt Chase(1849 1916), Thomas Anshutz, Cecilia Beaux, and Hugh Breckenridge. After winning the Cresson Traveling Scholarship Carles went to Paris in 1907, and where he discovered the work of Paul Cezanne (1839–1906), Henri Matisse (1869–1954), Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Hans Hofmann ( ), and Wassily Kandinsky ( ). He also became a close friend of the noted photographer and painter Eduard Steichen (1879–1973). Carles is best known for his floral still life subjects and nudes. In addition to being a regular exhibitor at the Academy from 1905 to 1946, Carles exhibited Alfred Stieglitz’s “291” gallery in New York from 1910 and 1912, at the Salon d’Automne in Paris in 1912, and at the Armory Show in New York in 1913. During World War I Carles directed the camouflaging of ships at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. He was a popular instructor at the Academy from 1917 until his dismissal in 1925. Carles was plagued by ill health later in his career and ceased to paint after becoming partially paralyzed in 1941. Carles exhibited at Stieglitz’s “291” gallery in New York and. Reference: Barbara A. Wolanin, Arthur B. Carles, 1882–1952: Painting with Color [exh. cat., Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts] (Philadelphia, 1983).