Charles Demuth's I Saw the Figure Fice in Gold isn't just an interesting hypnotic painting, it's an hommage to a friend. It's a faceless portrait; a portrait of his friend, William Carlos Williams. Support us on Patreon: / thecanvas
There are actually _four_ fives in the painting. Each five touches the next larger one in exactly the same way and the largest full five touches a yet bigger one-we see just a small arc of the bowl of the largest five in the upper right.
My favorite painting at the MET- I didn't realize the story (I had at one point may have heard someone associate it with a train) but didn't really have context. The other thing about this one is it is a lot larger than you would think just seeing a depiction of it- It is not massive... but when I walked past it- I SAW the figure 5, in gold!
Over 50 years ago, on a school trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I bought a postcard of this painting. I don’t even recall seeing the original (I think I didn’t)-I just liked the striking gold and red against the monochrome background and the various diagonals with the different aspects of the colors. I had no idea that it represented a fire engine receding into the distance. I still have the postcard and like the image as much as (or, maybe even more than) when I bought it. I’m glad to see a video about the painting here.
Thank you so much for teaching me all you have, and particularly in the case of this video. I’ve been curious about this gorgeous and compelling painting for years.
You should do a video on Saturn Devouring His Son Painting by Francisco Goya. It’s my favorite of his black paintings, Nerdwriter1 did a video on it (and it’s very good you should watch it) but I want to see how you analyze it.
