Details
The image
Bold shapes stacked and outlined in black, colour pushed to the front of the sheet, the composition frontal and symmetrical in the way a flag is symmetrical. Nothing is modelled and the whole picture looks assembled from parts rather than painted from life.
Where it comes from
Marsden Hartley painted in the years when European modernism was being absorbed in America and he used its vocabulary, flat planes, heavy outlines, strong colour, to describe things that had never been painted that way: insignia, uniforms, memorials. The work sits between abstraction and emblem and it reads as both.
On the wall
It brings colour and structure at once, so it suits a living room, a study or a hallway with strong furniture. Because the composition is frontal, it wants a wall where it can sit square rather than beside a corner. In a group it should be the piece that anchors the arrangement.
In company
Pairs well with plain furniture and with photography in black and white and the modern collection holds work from the same decades. Avoid hanging it beside softer watercolour, the contrast makes both look uncertain and the outlines need a plain wall so the emblems keep their edge.
