I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold by Charles Demuth

Charles Demuth · 1928-01-01

This is Charles Demuth's 'I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold' (1928), a high point of American Precisionism housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The painting is a portrait without a face. It honors Demuth's close friend, the poet William Carlos Williams, by translating the urgent rhythm of his poem 'The Great Figure' into pure geometry and metallic paint.

Let your eye follow the golden numeral 5 as it repeats and shrinks into the center of the canvas. That recession is the fire truck hurtling down a city street, its clanging bell growing fainter. The fractured red cityscape and white halos of streetlight flash past. Then look for the coded tribute: the street sign 'DILL' and the partial 'Bill' at upper right hide the dedicatee's name in plain sight.

Demuth and Williams met as young men at a Philadelphia boarding house and remained lifelong friends. In the late 1920s, Demuth created a series of 'poster portraits' honoring friends like Georgia O'Keeffe and Arthur Dove through symbolic objects rather than likenesses. This one captures the moment Williams, walking through the city, was arrested by a fire truck emblazoned with the number 5 and felt the sound become a poem.

The painting closes the loop: the poem becomes a painting. A clanging bell becomes a shimmering, radiant number that almost vibrates off the canvas.

Details

Look at the street sign. It says 'DILL.'

Williams wrote a poem about hearing a fire truck's bell clang '5.'

Demuth painted the sound. Layers of gold, receding into the distance.

Transcript

It looks like a fire truck screaming through the city. This is actually a portrait of a poet. Look at the street sign. It says 'DILL.' And up here, it says 'Bill.' William Carlos Williams. His nickname was Bill. Williams wrote a poem about hearing a fire truck's bell clang '5.' Demuth painted the sound. Layers of gold, receding into the distance.