Waterfall, Morse Pond

Marsden Hartley, who painted MAG’s Waterfall, Morse Pond (65.59), was a talented, restless intellectual who was interested in everything.  His first paintings were pictures of the Maine landscape, some impressionistic in style, others in flattened shapes and distorted color.  He went to Europe and tested all the “isms” of modern art, then came full circle and, at the end of his life, was again painting the mystery and beauty of his beloved Maine.

MARSDEN HARTLEY, “MAINEIAC”

by Joan K. Yanni

  

He was born Edmund Hartley in Lewiston, Maine, in 1877, the youngest and only son among nine children of English immigrants.  His mother died when he was eight, his father remarried, and the family moved to Cleveland, where Hartley won a scholarship to the Cleveland School of Art.  An avid reader and poet as well as a painter, he loved the writings of Emerson and Whitman and the mystical paintings of Albert Pinkham Ryder. He moved to New York City in 1899, studied at the (William Merritt) Chase School and the National Academy of Design and adopted his stepmother’s maiden name, Marsden.

His roots in Maine provided continuity in his life. After art school he began painting in Maine where he produced a series of romantic and somewhat mysterious landscapes.  When the young painter returned to New York City, Arthur B. Davies and Alfred Steiglitz noted his obvious talent. Steiglitz gave him his first one-man show at the 291 Gallery, where Hartley discovered the work of Picasso, Matisse, and Cézanne, whose work Stieglitz was showing at 291.

Always exploring new ideas, Hartley tried his hand at Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism and Fauvism and was successful at all of it. Steiglitz encouraged him to go to Europe, and he left for Paris in 1912. Here he experimented with Cubism and Dada. Again his talent and intellectual curiosity captured attention, and he was invited to become a member of Gertrude Stein’s circle, where modern writers and artists assembled to exchange ideas. 

He moved to Germany in 1913, where he became something of a celebrity and was befriended by Kandinsky and Franz Marc; Marc invited him to join the Expressionists in an exhibit of Der Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) group

 Berlin liberated Hartley, and he did some of his best work there. A closet homosexual at a time when even the word wasn’t spoken in polite society, he fell in love with Karl von Freyburg, a German soldier, and showed his elation by painting Cubist works made up of German helmets, flags and military symbols in vivid colors and sensuous paint. Unfortunately, his happiness did not last; von Freyburg was killed early in the war and Hartley was despondent. His bright Cubist paintings continued, but in memory of von Freyburg he added the initials KvF and an iron cross, given posthumously to his lover, in his paintings.  Politics and war forced Hartley to return to New York City in 1915. 

Back home, though his work was still acclaimed, he was not the celebrity that he had been in Berlin.  His paintings were

seen to be pro-German in an America that was getting ready to enter the war. His work had become truly non-objective and geometric—work that was not understood or appreciated. He was about ten years head of his time. He felt alone and unpopular. He began to wander, artistically and geographically, for the next twenty years. He went to Mexico, the Bavarian Alps, back to Maine.  He produced Cubist still lifes, Cézannesque landscapes, and blocky forms outlined in black, reminiscent of the paintings of Max Beckmann.

Hartley finally decided to settle in Maine in the late 1930s; he was back home. He had been criticized for spending years in Europe and producing French and German scenes. Now he decided to promote the place he loved: Maine. Though the exhibitions of his Maine paintings at 291 did not win the acclaim he sought, he continued to paint New England people and places. Regionalism, a movement that extols the beauty of the American land and rural subjects, had become popular in the 1920s and ‘30s with the paintings of Benton, Curry and Wood. Hartley made Maine his region: “I wish to declare myself the painter from Maine,” he said. “I’m a Maineiac.”

He painted expressive, contemplative seascapes, images of the rocky Maine coast, the deep woods, Mount Katahdin, Maine’s highest elevation, and Maine people—fishermen, hunters and robust young construction workers. His style had become strong and direct, with blocky, powerful forms in glowing colors—tangible greens, browns and rusts contrasted with light blues and whites of the sky and water.  The paintings of his last years are some of his best, with dense color, swift brush strokes and an emotional impact. Though he was alone and  almost penniless, he was at last able to stop seeking new styles and to paint the vigorous landscapes conveying his strong feelings for nature.

MAG’s painting is from these last years. A rushing waterfall cascades over rocks and fallen logs. Autumn leaves in deep oranges, reds and browns are divided by the white cascading waterfall. A narrow band of blue sky at the top of the painting presents a contrast to the dark leaves. The images in the painting are arranged in a strong pyramid.

Art historian Margaret MacDougall (daughter of Rochestarian Peggy Post) made a trip last year (11/02) to look for Hartley’s Morse Pond. After some difficulty with pronunciation (natives say “Moss Pond”) and in finding a native old enough to remember the exact location, she found the pond and the waterfall, still exactly as Hartley had painted it. It is located near Bingham, an hour north of Skowhegan. She photographed it in the same spot where Hartley had stood to paint it. Read her description and see the photograph on the MAG website: http://mag.rochester.edu

Sources: Peter Schjeldahl, “The Searcher,” in The New Yorker, February 3, 2003, review of Hartley retrospective at Wadsworth Atheneum, 1/17-4/13 2003; curatorial files.