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 XVIII, along with KvF VI and KvF XII, is directly based on Hartley’s Painting Number 49, Berlin (1914-15). The colors used in this painting, red, black, and white, recall the colors of the flag of the German Empire (1871–1918).
