This monumental painting is the centerpiece of a series that evokes the dynamism, pageantry, and danger of life in Berlin during World War I. The painting’s collagelike appearance, dramatic color, and emotional brushwork attest to Hartley’s skillful synthesis of Cubism and German Expressionism. Hartley’s composition is an abstract portrait of Karl von Freyburg, a Prussian lieutenant whom the artist loved and who died in the war. Von Freyburg is portrayed symbolically with the initials, "K.v.F."; his regiment number, 4; his age at death, 24; and the Iron Cross that he received posthumously.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Portrait of a German Officer
Artist:Marsden Hartley (American, Lewiston, Maine 1877–1943 Ellsworth, Maine)
Date:1914
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:68 1/4 × 41 3/8 in. (173.4 × 105.1 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949
Object Number:49.70.42
the artist (from 1914; to Stieglitz); Alfred Stieglitz, New York (by 1935–d. 1946; his estate, 1946–49; gift to MMA)
Münchener Graphik–Verlag, Berlin. "Hartley Exhibition," October 1915 [possibly this work].
New York. Anderson Galleries. "The Forum Exhibition of Modern American Painters," March 13–25, 1916, no. 51 (as "Portrait of a Young Man"; for sale, $600).
New York. Photo-Secession Gallery ("291"). "Exhibition of Paintings by Marsden Hartley," April 4–May 22, 1916, no catalogue.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Painting and Sculpture by Living Americans, Ninth Loan Exhibition," December 2, 1930–January 20, 1931, no. 42 (as "Portrait of My Friend," lent by An American Place, New York) [for sale, $2,000].
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Modern Works of Art: Fifth Anniversary Exhibition," November 20, 1934–January 20, 1935, no. 85 (lent by An American Place).
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Abstract Painting in America," February 12–March 22, 1935, no. 53 (as "Portrait of My Friend," lent by Mr. Alfred Stieglitz).
Cincinnati Modern Art Society. "Marsden Hartley—Stuart Davis," October 24–November 24, 1941, unnumbered cat. (p. 10; as "Portrait of My Friend," lent by An American Place).
Hartford. Wadsworth Atheneum. "Men in Arms," February 2–March 4, 1943, no. 41 (as "Portrait of My Friend, An Officer," lent by An American Place, New York).
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "History of an American, Alfred Stieglitz: '291' and After, Selections from the Stieglitz Collection," July 1–November 1, 1944, no. 241 (as "Portrait of K.v.F. [German Officer]").
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Alfred Stieglitz Exhibition: His Collection," June 10–August 31, 1947, no catalogue (checklist no. 35).
Art Institute of Chicago. "Alfred Stieglitz: His Photographs and His Collection," February 2–29, 1948, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "20th Century Painters: A Special Exhibition of Oils, Water Colors and Drawings Selected from the Collections of American Art in the Metropolitan Museum," June 16–October 29, 1950, unnum. brochure (p. 6).
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "From the Alfred Stieglitz Collection: An Extended Loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 22–August 12, 1951, no catalogue (checklist no. E.L.51.662; loan extended to November 16, 1953).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Painting, 1754–1954," December 18, 1953–September 1954, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Columbia Bicentennial Exhibition," October 28, 1954–April 18, 1955, no catalogue.
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. "Marsden Hartley," February 3–March 6, 1961, no. 13.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Marsden Hartley," March 7–April 8, 1962, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Three Centuries of American Painting," April 9–October 17, 1965, unnum. checklist.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Paintings, Drawings and Watercolors from the Museum's Collections," October 1–December 7, 1969, no catalogue.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Masterpieces of Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 16–November 1, 1970, unnumbered cat. (p. 114).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries," November 14, 1970–June 1, 1971, not in catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Installation of the 20th Century Paintings and Sculpture Galleries," opened October 5, 1971, no catalogue.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Marsden Hartley," March 4–May 25, 1980, no. 32.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Marsden Hartley," June 10–August 3, 1980, no. 32.
Fort Worth. Amon Carter Museum of Western Art. "Marsden Hartley," September 5–October 26, 1980, no. 32.
University Art Museum, University of California at Berkeley. "Marsden Hartley," November 12, 1980–January 4, 1981, no. 32.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Selection One: Twentieth-Century Art," February 1–April 30, 1985, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "14 Americans," July 16, 1990–January 2, 1991, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Painting: 1905–1950," April 19–October 7, 1991, no catalogue.
Berlin. Martin-Gropius-Bau. "Amerikanische Kunst im 20. Jahrhundert: Malerei und Plastik; 1913–1993," May 8–July 25, 1993, no. 1.
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "American Art in the 20th Century: Painting and Sculpture 1913–1993," September 16–December 12, 1993, no. 1.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries," January 28–April 22, 2001, unnumbered cat. (pl. 75).
Hartford. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. "Marsden Hartley," January 17–April 20, 2003, no. 19.
Washington, D. C. Phillips Collection. "Marsden Hartley," June 7–September 7, 2003, no. 19.
Kansas City, Mo. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. "Marsden Hartley," October 11, 2003–January 11, 2004, no. 19.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Stieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe," October 13, 2011–January 2, 2012, no. 99.
Neue Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. "Marsden Hartley - Die deutschen Bilder / The German Paintings, 1913–1915," April 5–June 29, 2014, unnumbered cat. (p. 85).
Humlebaek. Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. "Marsden Hartley: The Earth Is All I Know of Wonder," September 19, 2019–January 19, 2020, no. 22.
"Exhibitions Now On: The Forum Modernist Show." American Art News (March 18, 1916), p. 2.
Duncan Phillips. "Marsden Hartley." Magazine of Art 37 (March 1944), p. 83, ill. p. 86, calls it "Prussian Officer".
Oliver Larkin. "Alfred Stieglitz and '291'." Magazine of Art 40 (May 1947), p. 183, ill., as "My Friend," 1913.
Hudson D. Walker. "Marsden Hartley." Kenyon Review 9 (Spring 1947), p. 250, calls it "Portrait of an Officer".
Thomas B. Hess. "Dealer in Prophecies: The Modern Museum Stieglitz Memorial." Art News 46 (July 1947), pp. 22–23, ill.
Doris Brian. "The Metropolitan's American Policy—A Long View, No Blind Flying." Art Digest 24 (July 1, 1950), ill. p. 7.
John I. H. Baur. Revolution and Tradition in Modern American Art. Cambridge, Mass., 1951, p. 53, fig. 66, discusses works in this series.
Howard Devree. "Over A Generation: Two Current Exhibitions That Emphasize the Expansion of American Art." New York Times (May 27, 1951), p. 78.
Elizabeth McCausland. "The Return of the Native: Marsden Hartley." Art in America 40 (Spring 1952), pp. 61–62.
"The Age of Experiment." Time 67 (February 13, 1956), pp. 62–63, ill. (color).
Frederick S. Wight inNew Art in America: Fifty Painters of the 20th Century. Ed. John I. H. Baur. Greenwich, Conn., 1957, ill. p. 77 (color).
Alexander Eliot. Three Hundred Years of American Painting. New York, 1957, p. 184, ill. p. 185 (color).
William H. Pierson Jr. and Martha Davidson, ed. Arts of the United States: A Pictorial Survey. New York, 1960, p. 344, fig. 3155.
Elizabeth McCausland. Marsden Hartley. Exh. cat., McNay Art Institute, San Antonio. [Amsterdam], [1960], unpaginated, no. 13, ill.
Henry Geldzahler. American Painting in the Twentieth Century. New York, 1965, pp. 59–60, 146, ill. p. 58.
A. L. Chanin. Art Guide/ New York. New York, 1965, p. 98, no. 145, ill.
Henry J. Seldis. "Dandy Yankee Doodling---A Survey." Los Angeles Times (May 16, 1965), p. 16, ill.
Hudson Walker, Elizabeth McCausland, and Mary Bartlett Cowdrey. "Marsden Hartley." Archives of American Art Journal 8 (January 1968), p. 9.
Barbara Rose. American Painting: The 20th Century. [Lausanne], [1969], p. 21, ill. p. 12.
Barbara Novak. American Painting of the Nineteenth Century: Realism, Idealism, and the American Experience. New York, 1969, p. 267, fig. 15-5.
Peter Plagens. "Marsden Hartley Revisited; or, Were We Really Ever There?" Artforum 7 (May 1969), pp. 41, 43.
Thomas M. Folds inMasterpieces of Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. New York, [1970], p. 114, ill. (color).
George M. Cohen. A History of American Art. New York, 1971, p. 174.
Nora B. Beeson. Guide to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1972, p. 278, fig. 6.
Sam Hunter and John Jacobus. American Art of the 20th Century: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture. New York, 1973, fig. 220.
Irma B. Jaffe. "The Forming of the Avant-Garde, 1900–30." The Genius of American Painting. Ed. John Wilmerding. New York, 1973, p. 218, ill. p. 205 (color).
Henry Geldzahler in "A Bicentennial Treasury: American Masterpieces from the Metropolitan." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 33 (Winter 1975–76), p. 235, no. 87, ill. (color).
Douglas Davis and Mary Rourke. "American Art 200 Years On." Newsweek 87 (February 9, 1976), p. 67, with ill. facing p. 67 (color).
William Innes Homer. Alfred Stieglitz and the American Avant-Garde. Boston, 1977, p. 227, 230, fig. 111, dates it 1914–15.
Barbara Rose. "The Armory Show and Its Aftermath." American Painting from the Colonial Period to the Present. 2nd ed. (1st ed., 1969). New York, 1977, p. 139, ill. p. 130 (color).
Hilton Kramer. "Wanted: A Purpose for Modern at the Met." New York Times (November 20, 1977), p. D29.
Abraham A. Davidson. "Demuth's Poster Portraits." Artforum 17 (November 1978), p. 57.
Gail Levin. "Hidden Symbolism in Marsden Hartley's Military Pictures." Arts Magazine 54 (October 1979), pp. 154–56, 158, fig. 1.
Milton W. Brown et al. American Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Decorative Arts, Photography. New York, 1979, p. 423, colorpl. 62.
Roxana Barry. "The Age of Blood and Iron: Marsden Hartley in Berlin." Arts Magazine 54 (October 1979), p. 171, discusses works from the German Officer series.
Barbara Haskell. Marsden Hartley. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 1980, pp. 44–45, 101, 115, 195, 197, 215, no. 82, fig. 41, colorpl. 82.
John Ashbery. "The Unquiet American." New York Magazine (March 31, 1980), p. 74.
A. T. Baker. "Art: The Return of an Errant Native." Time 116 (July 14, 1980), p. 70, ill. p. 68 (color).
Avis Berman. "Marsden Hartley: The Wretched Genius." Sunday Sun (April 27, 1980), pp. D1, D8, ill.
Mark Stevens. "Art: An American Visionary." Newsweek (April 14, 1980), p. 109, ill. (color).
Hilton Kramer. "Hartley: In The Forefront of Modernism." New York Times (March 23, 1980), pp. D29–D30, ill.
Abraham A. Davidson. Early American Modernist Painting, 1910–1935. New York, 1981, pp. 25, 28, pl. 8, dates it 1914–15 in the text.
Kathleen Howard, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York, 1983, pp. 414–15, no. 10, ill. (color).
Anne Harrell inThe Forum Exhibition: Selections and Additions. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris. New York, 1983, p. 9.
Piri Halasz. The Expressionist Vision: A Central Theme in New York in the 1940s. Exh. cat., Hillwood Art Gallery. Greenvale, N.Y., 1983, pp. 12, 15.
Piri Halasz. "Manhattan Museums: The 1940s vs. the 1980s; Part Two: The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Arts Magazine 59 (March 1985), pp. 93, 96.
William S. Lieberman. 20th Century Art: Selections from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Vol. 1, Painting: 1905–1945. New York, 1986, pp. 26–27, ill. (color, overall and detail).
Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 9, The United States of America. New York, 1987, pp. 10, 118, 122, 127, colorpl. 89.
Edward J. Sozanski. "Going Modern: The Metropolitan Opens a Handsome, New Wing." Chicago Tribune (February 8, 1987), p. M13.
John Dorsey. "New Wing Lifts the Met Into the 20th Century." Sun (Baltimore, Md.) (February 1, 1987), p. 1K.
William Wilson. "A Mod Fan Dance at The Met." Los Angeles Times (February 8, 1987), p. 5.
Sylvia Hochfield. "Thoroughly Modern Met." Art News 86 (February 1987), p. 115.
Gail R. Scott. Marsden Hartley. New York, 1988, p. 53, pl. 38.
William H. Robinson. "Marsden Hartley's Military." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art (January 1989), pp. 13–16, 18, 25–26 n. 77, fig. 11.
Townsend Ludington. Marsden Hartley: The Biography of an American Artist. Boston, 1992, pp. 126–27.
Kenneth E. Silver inHand-Painted Pop: American Art in Transition, 1955–62. Ed. Russell Ferguson. Exh. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Los Angeles, 1992, p. 186, ill.
Steven C. Dubin. Arresting Images: Impolitic Art and Uncivil Actions. London, 1992, p. 163.
Norman Rosenthal inAmerican Art in the 20th Century: Painting and Sculpture 1913–1993. Ed. Christos M. Joachimides and Norman Rosenthal. Exh. cat., Martin-Gropius-Bau. Munich, 1993, p. 13.
Barbara Burn, ed. Masterpieces of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 294–95, ill. (color).
Jonathan Weinberg. Speaking for Vice: Homosexuality in the Art of Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, and the First American Avant-Garde. New Haven and London, 1993, pp. 3, 31–33, 133, 151–52, 154, 157–59, 161–62, 167, fig. 2, colorpl. 1.
John Russell. "Art View: American Art through European Eyes." New York Times (May 30, 1993), p. H29, ill.
David Galloway. "A Blockbuster of American Art in Berlin." International Herald Tribune (June 5–6, 1993), ill. p. 6.
Abraham A. Davidson inAmerican Art in the 20th Century: Painting and Sculpture 1913–1993. Ed. Christos M. Joachimides and Norman Rosenthal. Exh. cat., Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin. Munich, 1993, pp. 42, 478, no. 1, ill. p. 204 (color).
Peter Selz inAmerican Art in the 20th Century: Painting and Sculpture 1913–1993. Ed. Christos M. Joachimides and Norman Rosenthal. Exh. cat., Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin. Munich, 1993, p. 178.
Eleanor Heartney. "Berlin Summer." Art in America 81 (October 1993), ill. p. 44 (color).
Richard Cork. A Bitter Truth: Avant-Garde Art and the Great War. New Haven and London, 1994, pp. 91–93, pl. 110.
Barbara Burn, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. 2nd rev. ed. (1st ed., 1983). New York, 1994, p. 437, no. 12, ill. (color).
Emmanuel Cooper. The Sexual Perspective: Homosexuality and Art in the Last 100 Years in the West. 2nd ed. (1st ed., 1986). London, 1994, p. 122, fig. 6.3.
Patricia McDonnell. Dictated by Life: Marsden Hartley's German Paintings and Robert Indiana's Hartley Elegies. Exh. cat., Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota. Minneapolis, 1995, pp. 11, 28–29, 31, 44, ill. (color).
Bruce Robertson. Marsden Hartley. New York, 1995, pp. 56, 58–59, 64, 98, ill. (color).
Michael Plante in Patricia McDonnell. Dictated by Life: Marsden Hartley's German Paintings and Robert Indiana's Hartley Elegies. Exh. cat., Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota. Minneapolis, 1995, pp. 82–83.
Linda Leavell. Marianne Moore and the Visual Arts: Prismatic Color. Baton Rouge, La., 1995, pp. 107–8, fig. 20.
Richard Martin. "Warrior's Wardrobe." New York Times (September 22, 1996), p. B76, ill.
Lowery Stokes Sims and Sabine Rewald inStill Life: The Object in American Art, 1915-1995. Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Marsh Art Gallery, Richmond, Va. New York, 1996, p. 16, fig. 9 (color).
Jonathan Weinberg. "Things are Queer." Art Journal 55 (Winter 1996), p. 14.
H. W. Janson and Anthony F. Janson. History of Art. 5th rev. ed. (1st ed., 1962). New York, 1997, p. 788, fig. 1032 (color).
William Wilson. "Static But Not Stagnant." Los Angeles Times (June 28, 1997), p. F1.
William Wilson. "'Still Life' Asks Questions About the Nature of Art." Los Angeles Times (June 30, 1997), p. F7.
Patricia McDonnell. "'Essentially Masculine': Marsden Hartley, Gay Identity, and the Wilhelmine German Military." Art Journal 56 (Summer 1997), p. 62, fig. 2.
Wanda M. Corn. The Great American Thing: Modern Art and National Identity, 1915–1935. Berkeley, 1999, p. 358.
Stella Paul. Twentieth-Century Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Resource for Educators. New York, 1999, pp. 39–41, ill. and ill. p. 38 (color).
Maura Lyons in Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser Amy Ellis with Maura Lyons. Stieglitz, O'Keeffe & American Modernism. Exh. cat., Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Hartford, 1999, p. 88.
Hilton Kramer. "Abstraction in America: The First Generation." New Criterion 18 (October 1999), p. 14.
Bruce Robertson in Sarah Greenough. Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D. C., 2000, pp. 233, 235, 237, 532, colorpl. 75 and ill. frontispiece (color).
Barbara Buhler Lynes in Sarah Greenough. Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D. C., 2000, p. 267.
Vivien Green Fryd. "Georgia O'Keeffe's 'Radiator Building': Gender, Sexuality, Modernism, and Urban Imagery." Winterthur Portfolio 35 (Winter 2000), p. 273, fig. 6.
Hilton Kramer. "Majestic Stieglitz Show Charts Modernist Course." New York Observer (February 5, 2001), p. 1, ill.
Michael Kimmelman. "Art Review: Proselytizing for Modernism." New York Times (February 2, 2001), ill. p. E33.
John Cauman inInheriting Cubism: The Impact of Cubism on American Art, 1909–1936. Exh. cat., Hollis Taggart Galleries. New York, 2001, pp. 38–39, fig. 21.
Erika Doss. Twentieth-Century American Art. Oxford, 2002, pp. 66–67, fig. 28 (color).
James Timothy Voorhies, ed. My Dear Stieglitz: Letters of Marsden Hartley and Alfred Stieglitz, 1912–1915. Columbia, S. C., 2002, colorpl. 5.
Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser inMarsden Hartley. Ed. Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser. Exh. cat., Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford. New Haven, 2002, pp. 12, 18, 30 n. 28.
Donna M. Cassidy inMarsden Hartley. Ed. Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser. Exh. cat., Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford. New Haven, 2002, p. 183.
Kristina Wilson inMarsden Hartley. Ed. Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser. Exh. cat., Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford. New Haven, 2002, pp. 295–96, no. 19, ill. p. 89 (color).
Stephen Kornhauser and Ulrich Birkmaier inMarsden Hartley. Ed. Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser. Exh. cat., Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford. New Haven, 2002, p. 270, fig. 9 (x-ray).
Patricia McDonnell inMarsden Hartley. Ed. Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser. Exh. cat., Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford. New Haven, 2002, pp. 53–54.
Jonathan Weinberg inMarsden Hartley. Ed. Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser. Exh. cat., Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford. New Haven, 2002, pp. 120–22, 125, 129–31, ill. (color detail).
Patricia McDonnell. Painting Berlin Stories: Marsden Hartley, Oscar Bluemner, and the First American Avant-Garde in Expressionist Berlin. New York, 2003, pp. 93, 97, fig. 9.
Vivien Green Fryd. Art and the Crisis of Marriage: Edward Hopper and Georgia O'Keeffe. Chicago, 2003, pp. 158, 238 n. 19, fig. 95.
Robert Berlind. "Hartley's Indicative Objects." Art in America 91 (November 2003), p. 152, ill. (color).
Phyllis A. S. Boros. "An Artist ahead of His Time." Sunday Connecticut Post (January 19, 2003), pp. G1, G3, ill.
Benjamin Genocchio. "Art Review: An Artist's Restless Search for Love, and a Place in the World." New York Times (February 2, 2003), p. CT11, ill.
Stephen May. "Marsden Hartley, Four Decades as a Painter." Antiques and the Arts Weekly (February 21, 2003), p. 40, ill.
Phoebe Mitchell. "Art on View: At Last, Marsden Hartley." Daily Hampshire Gazette (March 3, 2003), p. B6.
Tracey O'Shaughnessy. "Panorama: Marsden Hartley Earns His Keep on Modernism's Peak." Sunday Republican-American (January 26, 2003), p. 5H.
James Panero. "Marsden Hartley and American Modernism." New Criterion 21 (March 2003), pp. 51–52.
Chesley Plemmons. "Maine and Mountains." News Times (February 7, 2003), p. D7.
Bruce Weber. The Heart of the Matter: The Still Lifes of Marsden Hartley. Exh. cat., Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc. New York, 2003, pp. 25, 27, 145 n. 94, fig. 18.
Karen Wilkin. "View/The Gallery: Art Fierce and Gritty." Wall Street Journal (February 21, 2003), p. W14, ill.
Stephen Goode. "Hartley's Talent." Insight on the News (Washington, D.C.) 19 (July 22–August 4, 2003), pp. 37–38, ill.
Blake Gopnik. "A Nomadic Visionary." Washington Post (June 8, 2003), pp. N1, N6, ill.
Hilton Kramer. "American Modern Master." Art & Antiques 26 (May 2003), p. 87, ill. (color).
Susan Elizabeth Ryan inRobert Indiana, The Hartley Elegies: The Collection Project. Exh. cat., Bates College Museum of Art. Lewiston, Me., 2005, pp. 10, 13–14, 16, ill. p. 15 (color).
Donna M. Cassidy. Marsden Hartley: Race, Region, and Nation. Hanover, N.H., 2005, pp. 1, 104, 139, 229–30, fig. 7.16.
Mark H. C. Bessire inRobert Indiana, The Hartley Elegies: The Collection Project. Exh. cat., Bates College Museum of Art. Lewiston, Me., 2005, p. 6.
Liz Kelton Sheehan inRobert Indiana, The Hartley Elegies: The Collection Project. Exh. cat., Bates College Museum of Art. Lewiston, Me., 2005, pp. 40–42.
Heather Hole. Marsden Hartley and the West: The Search for an American Modernism. Exh. cat., Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe. New Haven, 2007, pp. 19, 21, 103, 113, 115, fig. 42 (color), ill. p. 4 (color, detail).
Kristina Wilson. The Modern Eye: Stieglitz, MoMA, and the Art of the Exhibition, 1925–1934. New Haven and London, 2009, pp. 134, 136, fig. 67 (installation photo, Exh. New York 1930–31).
Joseph J. Rishel inCézanne and Beyond. Ed. Joseph J. Rishel and Katherine Sachs. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 2009, p. 163, fig. 6.5 (color).
Patricia Junker. "Childe Hassam, Marsden Hartley, and the Spirit of 1916." American Art 24 (Fall 2010), pp. 41, 45, 47–48.
David C. Ward in Jonathan D. Katz and David C. Ward. Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture. Exh. cat., National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Washington, D.C., 2010, pp. 131–32.
Jonathan D. Katz in Jonathan D. Katz and David C. Ward. Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture. Exh. cat., National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Washington, D.C., 2010, p. 26, fig. 10 (color).
Lisa Mintz Messinger inStieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Lisa Mintz Messinger. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2011, pp. 131, 134–35, 139, 263–64, 318 n. 28, no. 99, ill. (color), fig. 18 (installation photo of Exh. New York 1965).
Shawn Digney-Peer inStieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Lisa Mintz Messinger. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2011, p. 135, fig. 29 (X-ray).
Sarah Cash. Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Ed. Sarah Cash. Washington, D.C., 2011, p. 211, fig. 1 (color).
Holland Cotter. "High Aims for Art's Sake." New York Times (October 14, 2011), p. C25.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York, 2012, p. 406, ill. (color).
John Wilmerding. "Poetry in Motion, Expressed in Paint." Wall Street Journal (December 29–30, 2012), p. C13.
Karen Wilkin. "Stieglitz at the Met." New Criterion 30 (January 2012), pp. 60–61.
Dieter Scholz inMarsden Hartley: The German Paintings, 1913–1915. Ed. Dieter Scholz. Exh. cat., Neue Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Berlin, 2014, pp. 52, 204, ill. p. 85 (color).
Ilene Susan Fort inMarsden Hartley: The German Paintings, 1913–1915. Ed. Dieter Scholz. Exh. cat., Neue Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Berlin, 2014, p. 124.
Thomas Weißbrich inMarsden Hartley: The German Paintings, 1913–1915. Ed. Dieter Scholz. Exh. cat., Neue Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Berlin, 2014, pp. 136–37, ill. pp. 138–39 (color detail; key to motifs).
Kaitlyn Hogue Mellini inMarsden Hartley: The German Paintings, 1913–1915. Ed. Dieter Scholz. Exh. cat., Neue Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Berlin, 2014, pp. 181, 183–84.
Alexia Pooth inMarsden Hartley: The German Paintings, 1913–1915. Ed. Dieter Scholz. Exh. cat., Neue Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Berlin, 2014, pp. 193, 202.
Merlin James. "Marsden Hartley: Berlin and Los Angeles." Burlington Magazine 156 (November 2014), p. 781, fig. 80 (color) [caption erroneously switched with fig. 79].
Roberta Smith. "Out of Berlin, the Heart of an Artist." New York Times (June 15, 2014), p. AR20, ill. (overall and installation photo, Exh. Berlin 2014).
Frances K. Pohl. "Marsden Hartley: The German Paintings 1913–1915." CAA.Reviews (April 9, 2015), p. 1.
Roberta Smith. "A Trans-Atlantic View of Modernism." New York Times (January 9, 2015), p. C30, ill. p. C25 (installation photo).
Stephen Paul Miller. "The Abstract Expressionist Housewife: Fracture, Transposition, Williams and the Three Phases of Modernism." William Carlos Williams Review 32, no. 1–2 (2015), pp. 181, 183.
Kathryn Calley Galitz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Masterpiece Paintings. New York, 2016, p. 522, ill. (color), colorpl. 437.
David M. Lubin. Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War. New York, 2016, pp. 6–9, fig. 7 (color).
Randall R. Griffey inMarsden Hartley's Maine. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2017, p. 132.
Donna M. Cassidy, Elizabeth Finch, and Randall R. Griffey inMarsden Hartley's Maine. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2017, pp. 36–37, fig. 7 (color).
Jennifer Farrell. "World War I and the Visual Arts." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 75 (Fall 2017), p. 8.
Alexia Pooth inFrom Hopper to Rothko: America's Road to Modern Art. Ed. Ortrud Westheider and Michael Philipp. Exh. cat., Museum Barberini, Potsdam. Munich, 2017, p. 65, fig. 9 (color).
Randall Griffey. "Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War." CAA.Reviews (April 17, 2018).
Randall R. Griffey inMarsden Hartley: The Earth Is All I Know of Wonder. Ed. Lærke Rydal Jørgensen and Mathias Ussing Seeberg. Exh. cat., Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Humlebaek, 2019, p. 73.
Mathias Ussing Seeberg inMarsden Hartley: The Earth Is All I Know of Wonder. Ed. Lærke Rydal Jørgensen and Mathias Ussing Seeberg. Exh. cat., Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Humlebaek, 2019, pp. 9–10, 136, 141 n. 25, no. 22, ill. (color) pp. 11, 33.
Edyta Frelik inMarsden Hartley: The Earth Is All I Know of Wonder. Ed. Lærke Rydal Jørgensen and Mathias Ussing Seeberg. Exh. cat., Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Humlebaek, 2019, p. 79.
Elizabeth Finch inMarsden Hartley: The Earth Is All I Know of Wonder. Ed. Lærke Rydal Jørgensen and Mathias Ussing Seeberg. Exh. cat., Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Humlebaek, 2019, p. 128, fig. 15 (installation photo of Exh. New York 1930–31).
Phyllis Rose. Alfred Stieglitz: Taking Pictures, Making Painters. New Haven, 2019, p. 113, colorpl. 9.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York, 2019, p. 406, ill. (color).
Max Hollein. Modern and Contemporary Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2019, p. 7, ill. p. 37 (color).
Jeffrey Richmond-Moll. "Roots/Routes: Religion and Modern Mobility in American Art, 1900–1935." PhD diss., University of Delaware, 2019, pp. 261, 282 n. 109.
Philip J. Deloria. Becoming Mary Sully: Toward an American Indian Abstract. Seattle, 2019, pp. 145, 296 n. 3.
Douglas Eklund, Marilyn F. Friedman, and Randall R. Griffey inMaking The Met, 1870–2020. Ed. Andrea Bayer with Laura D. Corey. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2020, p. 166.
Emily Schuchardt Navratil in Rick Kinsel William Low and Emily Schuchardt Navratil. Marsden Hartley: Adventurer in the Arts. Exh. cat., Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine. London, 2020, p. 102.
Kathryn Calley Galitz. How to Read Portraits. New York, 2024, pp. 20, 101–2, fig. 53 (color).
Today on International Sign Languages Day, join art historian and Met educator Emmanuel von Schack to explore Marsden Hartley’s 1914 painting “Portrait of a German Officer” in the The Met’s modern and contemporary art galleries, presented in American Sign Language.
To commemorate Pride Month, Managing Editor Michael Cirigliano II takes a look at ten works from The Met collection by, or depicting, artists from the LGBT community.
Managing Editor Michael Cirigliano II explores the ways in which two queer artists, Marsden Hartley and Wilfred Owen, used their respective mediums to memorialize the effects of World War I.
Publishing and Marketing Assistant Rachel High discusses the work of Marsden Hartley and his relationship to his native state with Marsden Hartley's Maine co-curator Randall Griffey.
Consider how artists convey personality in nonfigural portraits and the relationship between visual and verbal expression by looking at a painting by Charles Demuth in the Museum's Modern and Contemporary galleries and through a portrait-making activity in the classroom.
Marsden Hartley (American, Lewiston, Maine 1877–1943 Ellsworth, Maine)
1940–41
Resources for Research
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's engagement with art from 1890 to today includes the acquisition and exhibition of works in a range of media, spanning movements in modernism to contemporary practices from across the globe.
