Remembering Charles Demuth (1883–1935) I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold by Charles Demuth

Today marks the birthday of Charles Demuth, one of America’s most original early modern artists. Born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Demuth is best known for his precise, colorful, and poetic paintings that helped shape the Precisionist art movement.

Demuth’s style blended Cubism and Realism, he loved structure, geometry, and light, but also emotion and rhythm. He painted everyday scenes, factories, buildings, and still lifes, but turned them into elegant compositions that felt almost musical.

One of his most famous works, I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold (1928), was inspired by a poem written by his friend William Carlos Williams. The painting turns the number “5” into a dazzling symbol of speed, sound, and modern life, a true masterpiece of American modernism.