Marsden Hartley, Still Life with Flowers, 1941

The compositional symmetry, black outlining of forms, infilling of intense color, and two-dimensional rendering of space and forms reminiscent of folk art, all reference the Marsden Hartley’s studies in Germany during 1913-1915 of Bavarian hinterglasmalerei (reverse painting on glass).

He was subsequently exposed to early American reverse painting on glass at the Ogunquit art colony in 1917, where he actually took up the medium. The brilliant colors, the thick impasto, the “lights and brights wrested out of enveloping darkness” (Wilkin), all contribute to a vision of floral exuberance and indomitable life in Still Life with Flowers, 1941.

Marsden Hartley, Still Life with Flowers, 1941, Oil on masonite, 28 x 22 inches

Mitchell Gold Fine Art