I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold
Charles Demuth, 1928
Charles Demuth painted this work in 1928, drawing its title from two lines of William Carlos Williams's short poem "The Great Figure" (1920). According to the poet, the verse came from watching a fire engine race past him on a city street at night, with its bells and sirens fading into the distance. Demuth's composition is built around a partial number five in the upper right corner and three complete fives that shrink in size, suggesting the truck moving away from the viewer. The vehicle itself is reduced to an abstract arrangement of red rectangles, set against streetlamps and buildings in black and grey. Words such as "Bill" and "CARLO", rendered in yellow dots like a lit theatre sign, refer to the friendship with the poet, and both men's initials appear along the bottom edge. The picture belongs to a series of poster-style portraits Demuth made between 1924 and 1929 as tributes to writer and artist friends. Its clean lines and geometry place it within Precisionism, and it remains notable for linking painting and poetry in New York during the 1920s.
- Painter
- Charles Demuth
- Date
- 1928
- Medium
- oil paint, cardboard
- Dimensions
- 90 × 76 cm
- Museum
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
- Movement
- Precisionism
- Genre
- portrait
- Depicts
- portrait, fire engine
