I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold

William Carlos Williams, Autobiography, New Directions, NY, 1967, p Once on a hot July day coming back exhausted from the Post Graduate Clinic, I dropped in as I sometimes did at Marsden [Hartley]'s studio on Fifteenth Street for a talk, a little drink maybe and to see what he was doing. As I approached his number I heard a great clatter of bells and the roar of a fire engine passing the end of the street down Ninth Avenue. I turned just in time to see a golden figure 5 on a red background flash by. The impression was so sudden and forceful that I took a piece of paper out of my pocket and wrote a short poem about it.

Charles Demuth was inspired by this poem Charles Demuth was inspired by this poem. Although his painting is not an illustration of the poem, it does give us a sense of the sights and sounds of the poem.

I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold by Charles Demuth 1928

Charles Demuth was born and raised in Lancaster, PA He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts He met American poet and physician William Carlos Williams in Philadelphia Williams is the subject of the painting “I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold”

Look more carefully at the painting Note how Demuth included the poet’s initials and the names “Bill” and “Carlos” in the painting This painting is a “faceless” portrait of the poet

You will use the the composition of “I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold” to create your own drawing

Here are simple, step by step directions to complete this assignment.