Details
The image
Flowers arranged as emblems rather than as a bouquet: heavy outlines, saturated colour, the stems and petals stacked frontally so that depth disappears. The composition is symmetrical and the whole sheet has the weight of a painted sign.
Where it comes from
Marsden Hartley painted flowers late in a career spent moving between Europe and America and he gave them the same construction he used for insignia and memorials: flat planes, heavy outlines, colour pushed to the surface. The result is a still life that behaves like a badge, which is why it works at poster scale.
On the wall
It brings colour and form into a room without adding detail, so it suits a living room, a study or a hallway with strong furniture. Because the composition is frontal and symmetrical, it wants a wall where it can sit square. In a group it should be the piece that anchors the arrangement.
In company
The Modern collection gathers prints made for the same kind of wall.Avoid hanging it beside delicate botanical illustration, two ways of drawing a flower on one wall make both look uncertain and the outlines here need light falling across them rather than from behind.
