Category Marsden Hartley

Marsden Hartley

A Complete Analysis of “Portrait of Berlin” by Marsden Hartley

Oil painting featuring an abstract collage of geometric shapes and figures, including a white eight-pointed star with a green-triangle “8,” red silhouette heads, a haloed seated figure, and a stylized horse and rider, rendered in muted blues, yellows, oranges, and whites.

Uncover how Marsden Hartley’s 1913 Portrait of Berlin fuses Cubist geometry, Expressionist color, and symbolic motifs to capture the city’s dynamic spirit.

Marsden Hartley

A Complete Analysis of “Alpspitze Mittenwald Road” by Marsden Hartley

Graphite drawing of Alpspitze Mittenwald Road showing a winding mountain path leading to a small chalet framed by vertical pines, with steep, jagged peaks rising above.

Discover how Marsden Hartley’s 1933 drawing Alpspitze Mittenwald Road captures Bavarian Alpine grandeur through disciplined line, tonal mastery, and modernist form.

Marsden Hartley

A Complete Analysis of “Flaming Pool—Dogtown” by Marsden Hartley

Oil painting depicting a turquoise pool surrounded by fiery orange and red boulders, with dark vertical trees on the horizon and a pastel pink and green sky above.

Discover how Marsden Hartley’s 1931 “Flaming Pool—Dogtown” transforms coastal boulders and water into a vivid modernist landscape through bold color and form.

Marsden Hartley

A Complete Analysis of “Waxenstein” by Marsden Hartley

Charcoal drawing of Waxenstein showing three angular mountain peaks in varied shades of gray with deep shadows in the foreground and a blank sky above.

Explore how Marsden Hartley’s 1933 drawing Waxenstein distills alpine majesty into monochromatic form, blending modernist restraint with symbolic power.

Marsden Hartley

A Complete Analysis of “Waxenstein” by Marsden Hartley

Monochrome lithograph of Waxenstein showing three jagged mountain peaks rendered in textured shades of gray with deep shadows in the foreground and a blank sky above.

Explore how Marsden Hartley’s 1933 monochromatic Waxenstein captures alpine grandeur through bold form, light-and-shadow interplay, and meditative simplicity.

Marsden Hartley

A Complete Analysis of “Mountain Landscape” by Marsden Hartley

Graphite drawing by Marsden Hartley, “Mountain Landscape” (1935): a massive, faceted mountain rendered in dark, hatched tones rises across the sheet, while a small cabin with a pitched roof sits at the base; strong diagonals, crisp contours, and untouched paper sky emphasize scale and simplicity.

Marsden Hartley’s 1935 graphite drawing “Mountain Landscape” turns a single peak and a tiny cabin into a meditation on scale, memory, and modernist form. Discover how contour, tonal blocks, and negative space let the mountain breathe while the humble shelter anchors Hartley’s spiritual search for home.

Marsden Hartley

A Complete Analysis of “Abstraction, Blue, Yellow and Green” by Marsden Hartley

Abstract oil painting by Marsden Hartley, “Abstraction, Blue, Yellow and Green” (1913): interlocking angular planes of yellow, red, green, blue, ochre, and black converge around a central pale yellow wedge, with thick brushstrokes and dark bordering passages creating a dynamic, faceted composition.

Marsden Hartley’s “Abstraction, Blue, Yellow and Green” (1913) fuses Cubist planes and Expressionist heat into a radiant web of color. Discover how a central yellow wedge, vibrating edges, and saturated blues, greens, and reds forge a personal modernist language in wartime Berlin.

Marsden Hartley

A Complete Analysis of “Sea Ghosts” by Marsden Hartley

Painting by Marsden Hartley, “Sea Ghosts” (1935): four upright, silvery fish with spiral eyes stand closely together against a flat reddish-brown rectangle, framed by a turquoise-green border; thick dark outlines, scumbled whites, and simplified forms give the scene a solemn, iconic feel.

Marsden Hartley’s “Sea Ghosts” (1935) elevates four silvery fish into haunting icons of Maine’s coast. Discover how bold contour, restrained color, and spiritual symbolism turn a humble catch into a modernist meditation on memory, mortality, and sustenance.

Marsden Hartley

A Complete Analysis of “Still Life With Pears” by Marsden Hartley

Pastel drawing by Marsden Hartley showing several russet and yellow pears resting on a loosely sketched blue cloth, with broken dark outlines and visible paper ground, creating a lively, textured still life on beige paper.

Marsden Hartley’s “Still Life With Pears” turns a handful of fruit on a blue-draped cloth into a study of ripeness, color, and memory. Explore how pastel touch, warm–cool contrasts, and symbolic echoes of his abstractions reveal the artist’s modernist vision in miniature.

Marsden Hartley

A Complete Analysis of “Driftwood on the Bagaduce” by Marsden Hartley

Oil painting by Marsden Hartley, “Driftwood on the Bagaduce” (1940): a massive, twisting white driftwood log sprawls across a dark rocky shore under a bright blue, cloud-dotted sky, with a tiny white sailboat on the horizon and a small shell near the foreground, all defined by thick black contours and expressive brushstrokes.

Marsden Hartley’s “Driftwood on the Bagaduce” (1940) turns a bleached log on a Maine shoreline into a heroic emblem. Discover how bold contour, rugged color, and personal symbolism fuse as the artist transforms coastal debris into a meditation on endurance, memory, and modernist form.

Marsden Hartley

A Complete Analysis of “Raptus” by Marsden Hartley

Oil painting by Marsden Hartley, Raptus (1913): a large golden and white circular disk dominates the top, pierced by three white-yellow beams forming a triangle that descends into a single vertical bar over the red word “RAPTUS”; surrounding reds, violets, and blues frame the glowing center, all rendered in thick, expressive brushstrokes.

Marsden Hartley’s Raptus (1913) erupts with blazing circles, thrusting triangles, and the scarlet word “RAPTUS,” turning spiritual ecstasy and personal urgency into a modernist icon. Explore how Berlin’s avant‑garde energy, sacred symbolism, and impasto gesture coalesce in this pivotal abstraction.

Marsden Hartley

A Complete Analysis of “Painting No. 8” by Marsden Hartley

Marsden Hartley’s Painting No. 8 (1913), a monochrome blue linear abstraction on raw canvas featuring jagged sunburst circles, sweeping diagonals, scalloped ridge shapes, and curving lines that suggest a mountainous landscape and symbolic emblems without filled color.

Marsden Hartley’s Painting No. 8 (1913) is a spare network of blue lines—sunbursts, diagonals, and sigils—that marks his leap into abstraction in Berlin. Discover how gesture, symbol, and structure fuse in this pivotal drawing‑painting.

Marsden Hartley

A Complete Analysis of “New Mexico Recollection No. 8” by Marsden Hartley

Oil painting by Marsden Hartley titled New Mexico Recollection No. 8 (1923): a pink desert plain with teal-green windblown shrubs in the foreground, a brown mountain ridge across the middle distance, and a stormy gray sky with looping clouds and a diagonal sheet of rain, all rendered in simplified, curving forms and expressive brushstrokes.

Marsden Hartley’s New Mexico Recollection No. 8 (1923) transforms a remembered desert storm into rhythmic bands of pink earth, teal shrubs, and rolling gray clouds. Explore how memory, modernist form, and spiritual symbolism fuse in this landmark canvas of the American Southwest.

Marsden Hartley

A Complete Analysis of “Painting No. 46” by Marsden Hartley

Oil painting by Marsden Hartley, “Painting No. 46” (1915): a dense field of red, white, blue, black, green, and yellow geometric motifs—targets, checkerboards, diamond grids, wavy stripes, and vertical bars—outlined in dark contours, resembling layered flags and emblems arranged in an arched composition against a dark ground.

Marsden Hartley’s “Painting No. 46” (1915) fuses flags, targets, checks, and blazing color into a wartime elegy painted in Berlin. Discover how the artist turned military pageantry and personal loss into a landmark of American abstraction.

Marsden Hartley

A Complete Analysis of “Abstraction” by Marsden Hartley

Oil painting by Marsden Hartley titled “Abstraction” (1913): overlapping red, yellow, green, and blue geometric forms—circles, crescents, triangles, and a central column—outlined in black and built with thick, textured brushstrokes, creating a totemic, altar‑like composition.

Marsden Hartley’s “Abstraction” (1913) fuses blazing color, geometric totems, and thick impasto into a modernist altar painted in Berlin. Discover how Cubist structure, Expressionist emotion, and private symbolism combine in this pivotal canvas of American abstraction.

Marsden Hartley

A Complete Analysis of “Songs of Winter, No. 3” by Marsden Hartley

Oil painting by Marsden Hartley, “Songs of Winter, No. 3” (1908): a snow‑flecked purple and blue mountain sweeps across the canvas under a pale sky, with dark green evergreens in the foreground and thick, swirling white strokes suggesting drifting snow.

Marsden Hartley’s “Songs of Winter, No. 3” (1908) turns a snow‑streaked mountain into a vibrant symphony of blues, violets, and swirling whites. Explore how bold impasto, musical rhythm, and emotional color forge an early milestone of American modernism.

Marsden Hartley

A Complete Analysis of “New Mexico” by Marsden Hartley

Pastel landscape by Marsden Hartley titled New Mexico (1918), showing a pale pink and ochre arroyo curving through rounded desert hills with sparse green shrubs under a light blue sky, rendered in soft, simplified shapes and dark contours.

Marsden Hartley’s New Mexico (1918) captures an arroyo winding through sun‑bleached hills in soft pastel. Discover how the artist fused Southwestern geology, muted desert color, and modernist form to create a contemplative landmark of American modernism.

Marsden Hartley

A Complete Analysis of “Summer Sea Window” by Marsden Hartley

Oil painting by Marsden Hartley, Summer Sea Window (1940): a dark tabletop holds a white pitcher with a single white flower and two closed books, seen in front of an open window that reveals a small green island on shimmering water beneath a pale blue sky dotted with rounded white clouds, flanked by purple curtains.

Marsden Hartley’s Summer Sea Window (1940) merges still life and seascape: a white pitcher with a single bloom and two closed books sit before an open window framing a Maine island and cloud‑filled sky. Discover how Hartley unites interior reflection and coastal light in a modernist meditation on looking and belonging.