Hartley created this study of lobster fishermen with pastel. The choice of medium and vivid, almost floral palette contrast in sentiment with the hardworking reality of the denim-clad laborers. The composition is defined by pronounced velvety black outlines, which depict the shadows and forms. The slight shifting of the line enlivens the surface of the work, lending an almost vibrating effect to both the ethereal elements of the clouds and sea and also the more solid objects such as the fishermen, houses, and traps.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Study for "Lobster Fishermen"
Artist:Marsden Hartley (American, Lewiston, Maine 1877–1943 Ellsworth, Maine)
Date:1940
Medium:Pastel on paperboard
Dimensions:21 1/4 × 27 in. (54 × 68.6 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, 1956
Object Number:56.77
the artist (1940–d. 1943; his estate, 1943–44; consigned and sold on October 17, 1944 to Paul Rosenberg & Co.]; [Paul Rosenberg & Co., New York, 1944–45; inv. no. 1748-603; sold in 1945, for $180, to Davis]; Mr. and Mrs. Richard S. Davis, Wayzata, Minn. (1945–54; on consignment 1953–54 to M. Knoedler & Company, New York, consignment no. CA4417; sold by Knoedler on February 12, 1954, for $400, to Martha Jackson Gallery); [Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, 1954–56; sold to MMA]
Cambridge, Mass. Fogg Art Museum. "An Exhibition of Twentieth Century Drawings and Watercolors from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Richard S. Davis, Wayzata, Minnesota," April 10–May 30, 1951, unnum. brochure (as "Lobster Fishermen, Corea, Maine").
New York. Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, Inc. "Marsden Hartley: The Late Figure Works," June 4–30, 1990, no. 34 (as "Lobster Fishermen").
Hartford. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. "Marsden Hartley," January 17–April 20, 2003, no. 87.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met Breuer]. "Marsden Hartley's Maine," March 15–June 18, 2017, unnumbered cat. (fig. 88).
Waterville, Me. Colby College Museum of Art. "Marsden Hartley's Maine," July 8–November 12, 2017, unnumbered cat.
Doreen Bolger et al. American Pastels in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, ill. p. 198, call it "Lobster Fishermen".
Amy Ellis inMarsden Hartley. Ed. Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser. Exh. cat., Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford. New Haven, 2002, pp. 320–21, no. 87, ill. p. 236 (color).
Randall R. Griffey inMarsden Hartley's Maine. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2017, pp. 106–7, 169, fig. 88 (color).
Isabelle Duvernois and Rachel Mustalish inMarsden Hartley's Maine. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2017, p. 159, fig. 153 (color photomicrograph).
Marsden Hartley (American, Lewiston, Maine 1877–1943 Ellsworth, Maine)
ca. 1917
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