Marsden Hartley
My introduction to Hartley was when I first saw this picture of a New Mexico Landscape on the cover of a Hartley New Mexico landscape catalog.
Landscape, New Mexico 1919–20
My introduction to Hartley was when I first saw this picture of a New Mexico Landscape on the cover of a Hartley New Mexico landscape catalog.
I remember being startled by Hartley’s landscape. How raw it appears at first glance. I spent a little time teaching people how to draw… for most of them, it was their first drawing class, you could tell that almost none of them had never done anything like this before. The drawings that came from that class sometimes had an unintended impact when you could tell that the person was trying hard to capture something, but they had not yet learned the language of mark making to express it. I feel that way when looking at my favorite Harley works. The Landscape above, to me, I think that Hartley is capturing something so primal. The whole painting feels completely new to me every time I look at it.
Who is Hartley?
I am not an expert on Hartley. I’m still learning a lot about him. What I do know is that he had several distinctive periods of his life that somewhat corresponded to bodies of work that he produced as an artist.
Early Years: This would be the period of time where he was growing up in Maine and learning by doing traditional landscapes
Europe: Hartley leaves for Europe around 1908. He slowly evolves to the point where he is creating a body of work ‘German Officer Paintings’.
Wandering: After WW1, Hartley spends decades finding himself.
New Mexico and Maine: Hartley has around a decade of mature art making.
Early Years:
Hartley was born in…
