Robert Indiana’s Hartley Elegies (1989–94) is a series of 18 paintings inspired by Marsden Hartley’s War Motif series, which Hartley executed as a tribute to the young German soldier Karl von Freyburg, who died during World War I and with whom Hartley had a deep friendship. KvF XIV is one of six tondos in the series, works that are pared down to the circle dominating the rectangular and diamond canvases.
Although the circles in the tondos do not have rings containing text and/or dates, as found in all but one of the rectangular and diamond shaped Elegies, they employ similar design elements and references to von Freyburg. In this painting we see the Iron Cross, which was awarded to von Freyburg before his death, and is the one element found in every painting in the series, as well as the letter E and the number 4, also found in the paintings KvF I (1989–94), KvF III (1989–94), and KvF VII (1989–94). The E likely references Queen Elisabeth of Greece, the patroness of the third regiment of the grand-grenadiers, in which Hartley’s close friend and von Freyburg’s cousin Arnold Rönnebeck served; and the 4 represents von Freyburg’s regiment, the 4th Regiment of the Imperial Guards.