Charles Rain was an American Magic Realist painter during the 20th century.[1]
Charles Whedon Rain | |
---|---|
Born | 1911 Knoxville, Tennessee |
Died | 1985 New York |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | School of the Art Institute of Chicago |
Style | Magic Realism |
Charles Whedon Rain was born in 1911 in Knoxville, Tennessee.[2] He grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska and studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1931-1933, with fellow Nebraskan artist and friend Keith Martin.[3] Rain would follow his studies with a year-long trip to Europe in 1934, where he traveled to Berlin, Paris, and Vienna, meeting several artists there, including Max Beckmann and Otto Dix.[3] Rain returned to the United States in 1935, settling in New York.[3]
Charles Rain was a prominent member of the Magic Realists, a movement of American painters influenced by European trompe l'oeil and Surrealism.[1] A 1942 exhibition by the Museum of Modern Art titled American Realists and Magic Realists featured paintings by Charles Rain, amongst other artists such as Andrew Wyeth and Peter Blume.[4] Rain also created costume designs for a ballet performed by the School of American Ballet. He died in New York in 1985.[2]
In 1999, the Sheldon Museum of Art held a Magic Realism exhibition all about Charles Rain's artworks.[5]
In 2019, Charles Rain's costume designs for the ballet Yankee Clipper were featured in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art about Lincoln Kirstein, a co-founder of the New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet.[4]
The Sheldon Museum of Art has a gallery named after Charles Rain, honoring the artist's large donation of his artworks and the Charles Rain and Charlotte Rain Koch Gallery Fund.[5][6]