Painting Number 49, Berlin

Marsden Hartley

1914-15

Oil on canvas

Seattle Art Museum

Hartley advanced an abstract take on portraiture, manipulating and configuring forms and symbols to express his feelings about—rather than accurately depict—his subjects. Here, numbers, shapes, and colors add up to a disguised portrait of a young German military officer named Karl von Freyburg, whom Hartley had met in Berlin in 1913. Von Freyburg’s death in battle the following year led the artist to create a series of symbolic portraits that evoke the color, pageantry, and movement of Berlin at the dawn of World War I. Meaningful symbols include the Iron Cross medal, the white plume of an officer’s helmet, and three numeral eights,