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The Last Look of John Donne
Accession # 71.201
Artist Marsden Hartley
Title The Last Look of John Donne
Date 1940
Medium Oil on academy board
Dimensions 28 1/8 x 22 in. (71.4 x 55.9 cm) frame: 37 1/2 x 31 1/2 x 2 3/4 in. (95.3 x 80 x 7 cm)
Credit Line Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Milton Lowenthal
Location Visible Storage: Case 16, Screen F (Paintings)

Curatorial Remarks: 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.