The Nut, Pre-Volstead Days - Charles Demuth Art Print

Charles Demuth painted The Nut (Pre-Volstead Days) in 1916, with last call already rattling in the pipes. Three years before the Volstead Act drained the taps, this Greenwich Village saloon still sweats amber.

This is pre-Prohibition nightlife at the moment a saloon counter becomes a stage. Before the country went dry, a nut meant a dandy with more nerve than sense. And here, a dandy barkeep in a cream suit leans loose across the bar, his rust red necktie flickering like a struck match. Facing him, a figure in a black coat blooms cobalt blue at the shoulder. Rouged cheeks. Mouth open mid-sentence.

The watercolor keeps its secrets half-finished. Graphite chandeliers hang in outline, never granted color, and blotted umber pools where elbows rest on ochre wood. Demuth was a gay artist who haunted New York cafés and vaudeville halls between trips home to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He knew how a glance travels down a counter before Prohibition arrives to end the party.

One stemmed glass waits near the rail, sketched thin and ready to lift. American modernism loosens its collar here, and queer art history writes itself in wet pigment. Hang this art print. Let the conversation stay poured.