Portrait Bust on Plinth
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
The number 8 seems to explode into the foreground of this painting, separating itself from a vibrant pattern of colors and shapes. Writing from Berlin, where he painted this work, Marsden Hartley revealed that the painting represented the mystical embodiment of “eight” (in many religions, a number associated with transcendence from the material to the spiritual). Although he offered no additional explanation, hints of his experience of pre–World War I Germany emerge in the arrangement of forms that are suggestive of military insignias and the brash sounds of military bands.
Caption
Portrait Bust on Plinth. Porcelain. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Emily Winthrop Miles, 60.198.12. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 60.198.12_acetate_bw.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Title
Portrait Bust on Plinth
Medium
Porcelain
Classification
Credit Line
Gift of Emily Winthrop Miles
Accession Number
60.198.12
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
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