Not long after his return to the United States from Germany, Hartley ventured to New Mexico, where he became enamored of the Spanish Colonial, Mexican, and Indigenous arts of the region. The Virgin of Guadalupe depicts a bulto, a small carved and painted religious statue. Hartley likely based the painting on a specific example of the Virgin Mary to which he had access. Artists and collectors were attracted to bultos because they believed them to be made by their (usually anonymous) creators with both directness and sincerity, qualities to which Hartley similarly aspired.
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Artwork Details
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Title:The Virgin of Guadalupe
Artist:Marsden Hartley (American, Lewiston, Maine 1877–1943 Ellsworth, Maine)
Date:ca. 1918–19
Medium:Oil and charcoal on paperboard
Dimensions:31 7/8 × 23 7/8 in. (81 × 60.6 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949
Accession Number:49.70.44
Inscription: Signed (verso, in black paint): Marsden / Hartley
the artist (until 1921; sale, Anderson Galleries, New York, May 17, 1921, no. 98, as "Virgin of Guadaloupe," 1919, sold for $95 to Stieglitz); Alfred Stieglitz, New York (1921–d. 1946; his estate, 1946–49; gift to MMA)
Santa Fe. Museum of New Mexico. "Santa Fe Fiesta Exhibit," opened September 11, 1919, no catalogue.
Anderson Galleries, New York. "Seventy-Five Pictures by James N. Rosenberg and 117 Pictures by Marsden Hartley," May 10–17, 1921, no. 98 (as "Virgin of Guadaloupe," 1919, collection of the artist).
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "History of an American, Alfred Stieglitz: '291' and After, Selections from the Stieglitz Collection," July 1–November 1, 1944, no. 246 (as "Virgin of Guadalupe," 1919).
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Alfred Stieglitz Exhibition: His Collection," June 10–August 31, 1947, no catalogue (checklist no. 40, as "Virgin of Guadalupe," 1919).
Art Institute of Chicago. "Alfred Stieglitz: His Photographs and His Collection," February 2–29, 1948, no catalogue (checklist no. 27).
Jacksonville, Fla. Jacksonville Art Museum. "The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 9–April 21, 1985, unnumbered cat. (p. 47, dated 1919).
Oklahoma City. Oklahoma Museum of Art. "The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 5–June 30, 1985, unnumbered cat.
New York. National Academy of Design. "The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," July 16–September 1, 1985, unnumbered cat.
Evanston, Ill. Terra Museum of American Art. "The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 15–November 10, 1985, unnumbered cat.
Little Rock. Arkansas Arts Center. "The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 12, 1985–January 19, 1986, unnumbered cat.
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. "The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 9–March 30, 1986, unnumbered cat.
St. Paul. Minnesota Museum of Art. "The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 20–June 8, 1986, unnumbered cat.
Katonah, N. Y. Katonah Gallery. "New England—New Mexico: Artistic Encounters, 1910–1940," March 25–May 7, 1989, unnumbered cat. (p. 5, as "Virgin of Guadalupe," 1919).
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 Still Life: 1915–1950," February 1, 1995–January 28, 1996, no catalogue.
Richmond, Va. Marsh Art Gallery. "Still Life: The Object in American Art, 1915–1995. Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 3–February 28, 1997, no. 56 (dated 1919).
Little Rock. Arkansas Arts Center. "Still Life: The Object in American Art, 1915–1995. Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," March 28–May 23, 1997, no. 56.
Newport Beach, Calif. Newport Harbor Art Museum. "Still Life: The Object in American Art, 1915–1995. Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 20–August 15, 1997, no. 56.
Tulsa, Okla. Philbrook Museum of Art. "Still Life: The Object in American Art, 1915–1995. Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 12–November 7, 1997, no. 56.
Palm Beach, Fla. The Society of the Four Arts. "Still Life: The Object in American Art, 1915–1995. Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 9–February 8, 1998, no. 56.
Salina, Kansas. Salina Art Center. "Still Life: The Object in American Art, 1915–1995. Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," March 6–May 3, 1998, no. 56.
New York. Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc. "The Heart of the Matter: The Still Lifes of Marsden Hartley," May 6–June 27, 2003, unnumbered cat. (pl. 10; dated 1918–19).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Stieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe," October 13, 2011–January 2, 2012, no. 101.
Humlebaek. Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. "Marsden Hartley: The Earth Is All I Know of Wonder," September 19, 2019–January 19, 2020, no. 42.
El Palacio 7 (November 30, 1919), p. 151, ill., as "The Virgin".
"Two Pictures by Hartley." Santa Fe New Mexican (September 25, 1919), p. 4.
Arts 1 (May 1921), p. 54, ill. p. 61.
John L. Porter. "A Declaration of Independence." International Studio 73 (June 1921), ill. p. cviii, calls it "Virgin of Guadaloupe".
Herbert J. Seligmann. "The Elegance of Marsden Hartley--Craftsman." International Studio 74 (October 1921), pp. LII–LIII.
Marianne Moore. Letter to Robert McAlmon. June 18, 1921 [published in Bonnie Costello, ed. “Marianne Moore: Selected Letters,” New York, 1997, pp. 163–64], mentions seeing this work reproduced in International Studio [see Ref. Porter 1921]; calls it "a kind of modern primitive, very definite and impressive".
Barbara Haskell. Marsden Hartley. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 1980, p. 59, fig. 55, dates it 1919.
Lowery Stokes Sims. The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Jacksonville Art Museum. New York, 1984, pp. 42, 46–47, ill.
Patricia Janis Broder. The American West: The Modern Vision. Boston, 1984, pp. 141, 144, 189, ill. p. 134, dates it 1919.
Sharyn Rohlfsen Udall. Modernist Painting in New Mexico, 1913–1935. Albuquerque, 1984, pp. 38, 45.
Linda Leavell. "When Marianne Moore Buys Pictures." American Literary History 5 (Summer 1993), p. 258, discusses Ref. Moore 1921.
W. Jackson Rushing. Native American Art and the New York Avant–Garde: A History of Cultural Primitivism. Austin, 1995, p. 79, fig. 3-34, dates it 1919.
Linda Leavell. Marianne Moore and the Visual Arts: Prismatic Color. Baton Rouge, La., 1995, p. 145, fig. 23, dates it 1919.
Lowery Stokes Sims 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, pp. 66, 143–44, 168, no. 56, ill. p. 145 (color).
Timothy Cahill. "Still Life Moves Up." Times Union (May 24, 1998), ill. p. 14.
Jacqueline Orsini Dunnington. Guadalupe: Our Lady of New Mexico. Santa Fe, 1999, pp. 60, following p. 78, colorpl. 11, calls it "Guadalupe in New Mexico" and dates it 1919.
Bruce Weber. The Heart of the Matter: The Still Lifes of Marsden Hartley. Exh. cat., Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc. New York, 2003, pp. 42, 72, 159, colorpl. 10.
Donna M. Cassidy. Marsden Hartley: Race, Region, and Nation. Hanover, N.H., 2005, p. 175, dates it 1919.
Heather Hole. "'America as Landscape': Marsden Hartley and New Mexico, 1918–1924." PhD diss., Princeton University, 2005, p. 289.
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. 136, 264, 318 n. 32, no. 101, ill. (color).
Isabelle Duvernois 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. 137, fig. 30 (detail of infrared reflectogram) and ill. (color).
Jeffrey Richmond-Moll. "Roots/Routes: Religion and Modern Mobility in American Art, 1900–1935." PhD diss., University of Delaware, 2019, pp. 232–40, 242–43, 245–47, 259–65, 268, 270–74, 277–83, 303–6, 309, 311, 316–19, 324, fig. 4.2, discusses this work in relation to Hartley's other santos still-life paintings from this period; argues that interpreting these works as examples of folk art's influence on "modernist artistic experiments" extracts them from "the dynamic world of use and practice in local Southwestern communities and culture"; suggests that Hartley's still-lifes of this period "address the impact of Anglo collecting and modernist aesthetic attitudes upon the material religion of indigenous and Hispano communities".
Marsden Hartley (American, Lewiston, Maine 1877–1943 Ellsworth, Maine)
1941–43
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