Charles Sheeler

River Rouge Plant
1932

Industrial waterfront scene with buildings reflected in calm water, featuring a depth gauge on the right. Painted by Sheeler in 1934.

In 1927, an advertising agency hired Charles Sheeler to photograph the Ford Motor Company’s new River Rouge plant, a vast complex ten miles outside Detroit, Michigan. Covering 2,000 acres and employing 75,000 people, River Rouge was the world’s largest factory and the first to fully manufacture cars on site. After finishing the photography assignment, Sheeler produced a series of paintings of the factory complex, including River Rouge Plant. Here, Sheeler depicted the plant’s coal processing and storage facility, set on the serene waters of a boat slip, using the crisp lines and hard-edge geometries of Precisionism. Although the plant had experienced severe labor disputes in the early years of the Depression, Sheeler repressed the human dimension of manufacturing work and focused instead on the factory as a paradigm of modern rationality and order. For Sheeler, American factories were the contemporary equivalent of the cathedral, “our substitute,” he said, “for religious experience.”

On view
Floor 7

Date
1932

Classification
Paintings

Medium
Oil and pencil on canvas

Dimensions
Overall: 20 7/16 × 24 3/8in. (51.9 × 61.9 cm)

Accession number
32.43

Credit line
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase

Rights and reproductions
© artist or artist’s estate

API
artworks/1480

Audio

Charles Sheeler, River Rouge Plant, 1932

In Where We Are (Spanish)

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Charles Sheeler, River Rouge Plant, 1932

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Narrator: Esta pintura prístina representa la planta de River Rouge, la primera fábrica en EE.UU. en armar un automóvil completo en un solo lugar. La Ford Motor Company encargó a Charles Sheeler fotografiar la fábrica; más tarde, el artista basó esta pintura de 1932 en aquellas fotografías. River Rouge era un vasto complejo cerca de Detroit, que empleaba a setenta y cinco mil personas. La pintura es un homenaje a la industria moderna, reminiscente de una frase del presidente Calvin Coolidge: "El hombre que construye una fábrica, construye un templo; para el hombre que trabaja allí, ese es su lugar de culto".
Sin embargo, la pintura está extrañamente despojada de toda presencia humana. Es un lugar construido por y para las máquinas. De hecho, con el tiempo, muchos de los trabajadores de la planta de River Rouge fueron sustituidos por maquinaria más eficiente. Durante los primeros años de la Depresión, la planta fue escenario de violentas confrontaciones entre los administradores de la fábrica y los obreros que intentaban sindicalizarse para conservar sus empleos.
Charles Sheeler, River Rouge Plant, 1932

In Where We Are

0:00

Charles Sheeler, River Rouge Plant, 1932

0:00

Narrator: This pristine painting depicts the River Rouge plant, the first factory in America to assemble a complete automobile onsite. Charles Sheeler was hired by the Ford Motor Company to photograph the factory; later, he based this painting from 1932 on those photographs. River Rouge was a vast complex near Detroit, employing seventy-five thousand people. The painting is an homage to modern industry, reminiscent of a statement by President Calvin Coolidge: "The man who builds a factory builds a temple; the man who works there, worships there."
But the painting is strangely devoid of human presence. It is a place built by and for machines. And eventually, many of the workers at the River Rouge plant were themselves replaced by more efficient machinery. During the early years of the Depression, the plant became the site of violent battles between plant management and the workers who were attempting to unionize in order to preserve their jobs.