"The Figure 5 in Gold"

Charles Demuth was a famous American painter from 1883-1935 who completed his work The Figure 5 in Gold in 1928. 

Demuth's inspiration behind this painting came from a poem that his friend William Carlos Williams wrote title "The Great Figure" just as Marsden Hartley's Portrait of a German Officer. 

The Great Figure

                                                                                BY WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS

Among the rain

and lights

I saw the figure 5

in gold

on a red

firetruck

moving

tense

unheeded

to gong clangs

siren howls

and wheels rumbling

through the dark city.

The Figure 5 in Gold is Demuth's testimonial to his friend for it is part of a series that Demuth worked on that included portraits of his friends. Here, Williams is represented through his poem of the fire truck and initials and name on the canvas. 

The painting resembles European cubism and futurism, but his distinguishably American Precisionism. With this new technique Demuth represents the passing of time by enlarging the number 5 so the the firetruck appears to approaching the viewer. The work also depicts a new form of technology and transportation advancement. This piece represents the  awe and ambivalence with people had at the new technology that people would stand and get hit by the approaching fire truck.