Marsden Hartley

New York, Paul Rosenberg & Co., Paintings by Marsden Hartley, 1950, no. 12

New York, Babcock Galleries, Marsden Hartley, 1877-1943, 1958-59, no. 21

After productive periods in Germany, New York, and New Mexico, Marsden Hartley returned to his native Maine in 1937 to begin a vibrant series of paintings that occupied him until his death in 1943. Although Hartley produced portraits, figural paintings, and still lifes during this generative period, his landscapes, such as the present work, provide an especially personal vision of his homeland. Pink House originates from Hartley’s time in Corea, a Down East village on the Gouldsboro Peninsula, that he first moved to in August 1940. In Corea, Hartley lived with local fisherman Forrest Young and his wife Katie, and painted in the town’s abandoned Baptist church. This church, and others, likely inspired the small church facing the sea in the background of the present landscape.

By placing the eponymous house just off center, framed on each side by a pair of fluffy clouds, Hartley’s composition is marked by a disquieting asymmetry. With the home’s door agape and household objects strewn around the front yard, the house feels lonely, otherwise devoid of human figures. However, the vibrant colors of the house, fields, sky, and sea all imbue a sense of deep nostalgia. Hartley’s Pink House could as easily present memories from his childhood home in Lewiston as it might capture a scene experienced by the aging artist. Hartley’s Maine period is marked by his tendency to dislocate or relocate objects within the landscape to imbue greater poignancy to his landscapes. The present work is especially remarkable for Hartley’s extensive use of scratching out to indicate everything from architectural features to grass fields.