Portrait
Artist
Marsden Hartley
(Lewiston, Maine, 1877 - 1943, Ellsworth, Maine)
Title
Portrait
Creation Date
ca. 1914-1915
Century
early 20th century
Dimensions
32 1/4 x 21 1/2 in. (81.92 x 54.61 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Creation Place
North America, United States
Medium and Support
oil on canvas
Credit Line
Lent by the Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Bequest of Hudson D. Walker from the Ione and Hudson D. Walker Collection
Copyright
This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s
Copyright Terms and Conditions.
Before World War I, Marsden Hartley travelled to Europe to study the Western tradition firsthand. The painter initially settled in Paris, where he met Gertrude Stein and studied her collection. Hartley came to believe that the art scene in the French capital was too competitive and cerebral. Yet, despite the artist’s misgivings, this Parisian sojourn proved foundational. He attended Stein’s Saturday salons; he changed his palette to the brighter, bolder version favored by the Fauvists and Synchromists; and he explored the anti-illusionistic space of the Cubists. Hartley took these findings with him to Berlin. In the German capital he became infatuated with a Prussian lieutenant, Karl von Freyburg. Devastated by the early death of this young soldier, Hartley channeled his grief into a suite of images that incorporated military references and numeric symbols.
