Marsden Hartley
Marsden Hartley was an influential American painter and poet, born Edmund Hartley on January 4, 1877, in Lewiston, Maine. Facing early challenges, including the death of his mother and financial hardships, he left school to work in a shoe factory. His artistic talent was recognized in Cleveland, where he earned a scholarship to the Cleveland School of Art. Relocating to New York City in 1898, he studied under notable artists and adopted the name Marsden Hartley in 1906. He became associated with Alfred Stieglitz, which facilitated his artistic development in Europe.
Hartley's work is characterized by his deep connection to his New England roots, particularly Maine, which he sought to portray as a native painter by the mid-1930s. Alongside his painting, he became an accomplished writer, publishing essays and poetry in various literary magazines. His recognition as a key figure among Early American Modernists has grown, and he is celebrated for intertwining his identity as a gay artist with his broader contributions to American art. Hartley passed away in 1943, leaving a lasting legacy in both visual arts and literature.
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Subject Terms
Marsden Hartley
- Born: January 4, 1877
- Birthplace: Lewiston, Maine
- Died: September 2, 1943
- Place of death: Ellsworth, Maine
Biography
Edmund Hartley was the youngest of nine children, born on January 4, 1877, in Lewiston, Maine. His mother died when he was eight years old, and he lived for a time with one of his older sisters. Because the family had little money, Hartley left school early to work in a shoe factory.
In the early 1890’s, Hartley joined his father and his stepmother in Cleveland, Ohio, where his artistic talent attracted attention and earned him a scholarship to the Cleveland School of Art. In 1898, he moved to New York City, where he attended the art school of painter William Merritt Chase before going on to study at the National Academy of Design and the Art Student League. In 1906, he adopted the maiden name of his stepmother, Martha Marsden Hartley, as his own. From this time forward he was “Marsden Hartley.”
Through his association with several New York artists, Hartley met Alfred Stieglitz, photographer and husband of Georgia O’Keeffe, whose 291 Gallery was to become the most influential gallery for vanguard art in the United States in the early twentieth century. With Stieglitz’s assistance, Hartley traveled, studied, and painted in Paris and Germany from 1912 to 1915.
Hartley returned often to France and Germany in the 1920’s and 1930’s. By the mid-1930’s, however, he chose to return to his New England roots—first in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and then in Maine. In his 1937 essay “On the Subject of Nativeness: A Tribute to Maine,” he named as a goal his wish to be known as the native painter of Maine.
By 1916, writing had become an important part of Hartley’s creative life. As he had been encouraged by Stieglitz in his artistic endeavors, he was encouraged by Gertrude Stein, Hart Crane, and Sherwood Anderson to write. He was first published in such small magazines as The Little Review, The Dial, Poetry, and Contact. His first book, a collection of essays, Adventures in the Arts: Informed Chapters on Painters, Vaudeville, and Poets, was first published in 1921. His first collection of poetry, Twenty-Five Poems, was published in Paris in 1923. The only other books of his poetry published during his lifetime were Androscoggin and Sea Burial, published privately in Portland, Maine, in 1940 and 1941, respectively. Several other volumes of his works have been published posthumously.
Interest in Hartley’s work as artist and poet has increased since 1980. He is now widely acknowledged as the greatest of the Early American Modernists. And, says Andrew Whittaker, “we can celebrate Marden Harley [today] as a gay artist, while in no way subtracting from his wider significance to American art . The two achievements are intertwined. Hartley consciously placed himself in the tradition of Walt Whitman’s democratic camaraderie [and] the Emersonian tradition of Nature as wellspring of human values.”
Marsden Hartley died in Ellsworth, Maine in 1943. Ten years later, Jerome Melquist, eminent art and literary critic, wrote this: “He fulfilled his own loneliness and became one of the few Americans of his generation to stand whole and free, at once the undeniable citizen of the world and of his own generation.”