Marsden Hartley (1877 – 1943)
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Marsden Hartley was an American Modernist painter of 20th century, born in Lewiston, Maine. Hartley relocated to Ohio in 1892 to study at the Cleveland Institute of Art. After six years living in Ohio, Hartley moved to the American art capital, New York City. Hartley continued his studies at the Art Students League and joined the National Academy of Design. In New York, Hartley had several inspirational instructors and mentors including William Merritt Chase and Albert Pinkham Ryder and the impressionist Giovanni Segantini.
Hartley quickly became a part of the art scene in New York. In 1909 Hartley was invited to show with Alfred Stieglitz’s artist group at 291 Gallery. Hartely’s association with Stieglitz quickly brought him into the spotlight. Hartley befriended avant-garde artists and writers such as Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, Hart Cane, Charles Demuth, Georgia O’Keefe and Fernand Léger.
Though Hartley exhibited frequently in New York, he was known as a nomadic painter. Hartley’s extensive travels took him through Europe and the United States. Popular painting locations included Massachusetts, New Mexico, California, Maine and Western Europe. From 1912 to 1915 Hartely lived in Paris and Berlin, studying the abstract work of Kandinsky and Franz Marc. In his later life, Hartley concentrated on painting his birth-state, Maine, in hopes of defining himself as “the painter of Maine”. In Maine Hartley’s work became more representational, depicting American landscapes and portraits.
In addition to being a greatly skilled painter, Hartely was a poet and a writer. Hartley’s story, “Cleophas and His Own” was adapted into an independent film in 2005 by Michael Maglaras.
Hartley is now recognized as an influential Modernist painter of the twentieth century. Hartley’s work is in major museums and private collections throughout the United States. Hartley is well remembered in every state he lived in, from Ohio to Maine. Do you think you own a painting by Marsden Hartley? Contact us. We are the Marsden Hartley experts.