About this work
*Painting No. 47, Berlin* (1914–15) is an oil on canvas, measuring approximately 39½ by 32 inches, held in the permanent collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. The canvas confronts the viewer with a dense, almost pressurized field of abstract signs: bright, starkly contrasting colours that border one another directly, all revolving around the theme of the First World War — flags, military standards, and insignia such as the Iron Cross forming recurring motifs.
Encoded within this visual tumult are von Freyburg's initials, his age at death, the iron cross, and other personal signs — a symbolic portrait in which no face appears, yet a human presence saturates every inch of the surface. Dots, bars, lines, circles, rings, and zigzags jostle alongside interspersed numbers, words, and recognizable objects such as helmets, epaulets, and medals, generating a visual intensity that is equal parts elegy and eruption.
*Painting No. 47, Berlin* is one of more than a dozen deeply symbolic and personal paintings Hartley produced in 1914 and 1915.
The one time Hartley seemed to find peace was, ironically, just before World War I: he traveled to Germany, fell in love with the German officer Karl von Freyburg, and became entranced with the country's speed, efficiency, and vibrant colors, developing an original style of abstraction that incorporated the signs and emblems of German life.
Von Freyburg was killed on October 7, 1914, and to mourn his death, Hartley created this series of innovative paintings to express his powerful feelings.
The Berlin years, 1913 to 1915, marked an apogee of abstraction in his career, during which he developed a completely independent vernacular that placed him at the forefront of the avant-garde of the time.
Nearly a half-century later, this combination of bright color and composition with popular signage — informed by the coding of gay culture — would make a strong impact on Pop artists such as Jasper Johns and Robert Indiana.
On a wall today, this painting belongs in a space that can hold genuine weight — a generous living room, a high-ceilinged study, or a collector's gallery where nothing competes with it for long. Georgia O'Keeffe described Hartley's German paintings as "like a brass band in a closet," and the observation still lands: the work is contained but ferociously alive. It speaks to the viewer who wants art that means something specific — not merely decor
