Marsden Hartley (1877 - 1943)

Genre: Poetry, Non-Fiction

Marsden Hartley is one of America's most admired and respected modernist painters. See entries in the ArtLex Visual Arts Dictionary for definitions and links to both art and literature of the period. Given the name of Edmund Hartley at birth, he assumed the name Marsden, his stepmother's last name, when he was in his early 20s.

The youngest of nine children, Hartley was born in Lewiston, Maine. When he was eight, his mother died. Since the family had little money, he left school at an early age to work in a shoe factory. By 1890 he had moved to Cleveland where he rejoined his family who had moved there to seek better employment. Hartley, primarily self-taught, was a student for a short time at the Cleveland Art School. After moving to New York, he studied with William Merritt Chase and at the National Academy of Design and the Art Student League.

Hartley, through his association with several New York artists, met Alfred Stieglitz whose 291 Gallery became one of the key art institutions of the early 20th century. For information on Stieglitz, see the entry in the Encyclopedia of Photography. With Stieglitz's assistance, Hartley traveled, studied, and painted in Paris and Germany from 1912 through 1915. He returned often to France and Germany in the 20s and 30s. By the mid-30s, however, he determined to return to his New England roots, first in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and then Maine. In fact, Hartley, in a 1937 essay titled, "On the Subject of Nativeness: A Tribute to Maine," declared that he wished to be known as the native painter of Maine. The essay can be found in Gail Scott's On Art by Marsden Hartley (1982). Many of his paintings and drawings from the 30s and 40s focus on the Lovell area, Mount Katahdin, and the coast and fishermen of the Corea area. Hartley died in Ellsworth and his ashes were scattered on the Androscoggin River.

The Bates College Museum of Art, located in Lewiston, has a noted collection of Hartley paintings and drawings. The largest Hartley collection - 54 works on paper and 61 paintings - is located at The Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota. The museum's web site provides an overview of Hartley's varied styles and images of eight portraits and landscapes. The City Review critiques an exhibit/catalog titled "Seeking the Spiritual: The Paintings of Marsden Hartley" and also provides links to other online Hartley images. Artcyclopedia also gives access to online sites that contain Hartley paintings and drawings.

In addition to being a gifted artist, Hartley was also a poet and essayist. By 1916, his writing had become an important part of his creative life. Just as Stieglitz encouraged him in his artistic efforts, Gertrude Stein, Hart Crane , and Sherwood Anderson encouraged Hartley to write. Like many other writers, he was first published in little magazines such as The Little Review, The Dial, Poetry, Contact, and others. His first book, Adventures in the Arts: Informal Chapters on Painters, Vaudeville, and Poets, a collection of essays, was published in 1921 and reprinted in 1972. His first poetry book, Twenty-Five Poems (1923), was published in Paris. The only other poetry books published during his life, Androscoggin (1940) and Sea Burial (1941), were privately published in Portland, Maine. Selected Poems (1945), Eight Poems and One Essay by Marsden Hartley (1976), Cleophas and His Own: A North Atlantic Tragedy (1982), plus a collection of letters titled Heart's Gate: Letters Between Marsden Hartley and Horace Traubel, 1906-1915 (1982) were published posthumously.

Since 1980, Hartley's work as an artist and poet has gained increased attention from both the art and academic worlds. Marsden Hartley (1980), a book-length exhibit catalog written by Barbara Haskell, is one of the seminal texts in the Hartley revival. Art historian Gail Scott has published four books/catalogs on the artist. The titles are On Art (1982), a collection of the artist's essays; Collected Poems of Marsden Hartley, 1904-1943 (1987; a list of the book's poems can be found on Amazon.Com); Marsden Hartley (1988), an art history study; and Marsden Hartley and Nova Scotia (1987), an exhibit catalog.

Other recent titles about Hartley include: Marsden Hartley: The Biography of an American Artist (1992); Pinnacles and Pyramids: The Art of Marsden Hartley (1993); Speaking for Vice: Homosexuality in the Art of Charles DeMuth, Marsden Hartley and the First American Avant-garde (1993); Marsden Hartley (1995), a biographical/critical study; Dictated by Life: Marsden Hartley's German Paintings and Robert Indiana's Hartley Elegies (1995); Marsden Hartley: An American Modern (1997), exhibit catalog; Marsden Hartley: The Biography of an American Artist (1998), reprint with new preface of 1992 book of same title. Of special note is the 1996 publication of Hartley's autobiography, Somehow a Past: The Autobiography of Marsden Hartley.

Last Update: 01/04/2008

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