The Last Look of John Donne

1940

Marsden Hartley occasionally painted imaginary portraits of historical figures such as this one of John Donne, the seventeenth-century English metaphysical poet and dean of Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London. The solemn portrait is based on an engraving of Donne’s carved tomb effigy that was the frontispiece for a collection of his sermons. The shrouded body is presented in a palette of blues and whites, cool colors evocative of death, while the striated pattern of folds approximates the hard, carved stone of the tomb.