Hartley at Home: About the Artist: a Chronological Biography of Marsden Hartley from 1877 to 1943
1877: January 4: Edmund
Hartley born in Lewiston Maine to Thomas and Eliza Jane Hartley.
1885: March 4: Mother, Eliza
Jane Hartley, dies. Younger sisters sent away to live with older sister. Edmund
moves across Androscoggin River to live with elder sister in Auburn, Maine.
1889: Father, Thomas Hartley, marries Martha Marsden and moves
to Cleveland, Ohio.
1892: Edmund leaves school
to work in Knopf shoe factory in Lewiston.
1893: Edmund moves to Cleveland
to join father and stepmother where he takes job as office boy in a quarry.
1896: Takes weekly art lessons
with Cleveland landscape painter John Semon.
1898: Summer: Loses job
at quarry; studies plein-air painting with Cullen Yates in Cleveland.
Fall: Enrolls in Cleveland School
of Art on scholarship. Teacher Nina Wadeck gives him a copy of Ralph Waldo
Emerson's Essays.
1899: Spring: Awarded five-year
annual stipend of $450 from Anne Walworth, trustee of Cleveland School of
Art to study art in New York City.
Fall: Enrolls in New York School of
Art (The Chase School); works with Luis Mora and Frank Vincent DuMond.
1900: Summer: Returns to
Lewiston for first time in 7 years. Makes field studies of flora and fauna.
Fall: Transfers to National Academy
of Design, where he studies for next four years under Francis C. Jones and
others.
1901: Summer: Joins art colony
of Charles Fox and Curtis Perry in North Bridgton, Maine.
1902: Spring: Awarded Honorable
Mention for composition and the Suydam Silver Medal for still-life drawing
at the National Academy.
Summer: Lives in North Lovell, Maine
where he paints mountains.
1903: Summer: Returns to
Center Lovell.
Winter: Attends National Academy.
1904: November: Fellowship
expires. Works as an extra with Proctor's Theatre Company in New York.
1905: Summer: Tours with
Proctor's theatre. Meets Horace Traubel and paints Walt Whitman's house in
Camden, New Jersey.
1906: Fall: Proctor's tour
ends in Boston. Hartley returns to Lewiston where he rents a studio on Lisbon
Street, distributing announcements that he is available to give art lessons.
Winter: Paints Impressionist landscapes.
Adopts mother's name, changes his to Edmund Marsden Hartley. Reads Maurice
Maeterlink, Edgar Allan Poe, Henrik Ibsen, and Irish poetry.
1907: Summer: Hired to erect
tents for Congress of Religions at Green Acre in Eliot, Maine, a utopian community.
Fall: First solo exhibition held in
home of Mrs. Ole Bull, adjacent to Green Acre complex. Returns to Lovell area
to sketch.
Winter: Returns to Boston.
1908: Spring: Continues Impressionist
landscapes. Exhibits painting at Rowlands Gallery, Boston, and meets prominent
collector Desmond Fitzgerald, who buys Maine Blizzard.
Summer: Returns to North Lovell where
he remains through the winter.
1909: March: Takes paintings
to Boston to show Charles and Maurice Prendergast, who write letters of introduction
to William Glackens. Hartley goes to New York where he shows work to some
of "The Eight" at Glacken's studio.
April: Seamus O'Sheel takes Hartley
to 291 Gallery and introduces him to Alfred Steiglitz.
May: Hartley's first major solo exhibition
held at 291. Meets dealer N.E. Montross, who shows him work by Albert Pinkham
Ryder.
Summer: Borrows space in studio of
friend Ernest Roth, where he paints Dark Mountain paintings after Ryder.
November: Returns to Lewiston.
1910: Winter: Returns to
New York where he joins Stieglitz's 291 circle of artists and writers. Sees
Rodin and Matisse drawing shows at 291.
Summer: Returns to North Lovell where
he paints Fauvist landscapes with bright color and thick paint.
December: Returns to New York.
1911: Hospitalized for five
weeks with scarlet fever.
March 11: Exhibits 15 works in Independents
Exhibition. After seeing Picasso's work at 291, inspired to produce first
abstractions. Visits Philidelphia and Baltimore in unsuccessful attempts to
sell paintings.
June: Returns to North Lovell, where
he does series of Cezannesque still lifes of pears from black-and-white reproductions.
November: Returns to New York and visits
Cezanne exhibit from Havemeyer collection with Arthur B. Davies.
1912: February: Second solo
exhibition held at 291. Through sale of painting to Agnes Meyer, Stieglitz
and Davies arrange for him to go to Europe.
April 11: Arrives in Paris.
June: Borrows Lee Simonson's studio
at 18 rue Moulin de Beurre and paints still lifes in Matisse-Cezanne style;
meets Gertrude and Leo Stein and sees their collection.
July: Introduced to German coterie,
including Arnold Ronnebeck and his cousin Karl von Freyburg. Reads Kandinsky's
Der Blaue Reiter and On the Spiritual in Art. Reads Christian
mystics and Willam James’ Varieties of Religious Experience.
November: Travels to London with his
still-life paintings; meets Augustus John at Chenil Gallery; visits British
Museum. Begins painting "intuitive abstractions," including Musical
Theme paintings.
1913: January 3: Leaves for
three-week trip to Berlin to visit Ronnebeck and his family.
January 2: Meets Kandinsky and Gabriele
Munter on return trip through Munich. Sees Franz Marc's work at Galerie Thannhauser.
February: Included in the Armory show
in New York.
March: Visits Stein's salon regularly;
Corresponds with Marc.
April: Lee Simonson returns to Paris;
Hartley leaves Paris for Berlin; stays with Franc Marc in Sindelsdorf for
four days; arrives in Berlin in May.
Summer: Paints prewar pageants and
mystical paintings.
September: Five "intuitive abstractions"
exhibited in Erster deutscher Herbstsalon in Berlin with Blaue Reiter Artists.
November 15: Sails for New York with
work for the 291 exhibition.
1914: January: Third solo
show held at 291.
February: Spends ten days in Buffalo,
New York for show in home of Nina Bull.
March: Returns to Germany via London
and Paris
April 30: Arrives in Berlin. Paints
emblematic color abstractions.
Summer: Paints Amerika series.
August: Germany declares war on the
Allies. Learns that his father died August 4. Hartley continues painting.
October 7: Karl von Freyburg killed
in battle.
Early November: Begins German Officer
series.
1915: Continues German Officer
series in Berlin for nearly a year.
May: Martha Marsden, stepmother, dies.
October: Exhibition at the Munchener
Graphik-Verlag, Berlin, of 45 paintings and some drawings.
December 11: Returns to New York.
1916: Lives in New York.
Pays short visit to Mabel Dodge in Croton-on-Hudson and attends Dodge's salon
in Greenwich Village. Does cubistic portraits and still lifes.
March: Participates in The Forum
Exhibition of Modern American Painters.
April 4: Fourth solo exhibition at
291, of German Officer paintings which are not well received.
July 13: Arrives in Provincetown, Massachusetts
where he stays for the summer as guest of John Reed, with Carl Sprinchorn,
Charles Demuth, William and Marguerite Zorach, and other artists.
Fall: Remains in Provincetown, then
returns to New York.
December: Spends the winter in Bermuda
with Charles Demuth.
1917: January: First essays
and poems published in The New Republic and Seven Arts.
April: Participates in First Annual
Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists; Paints still-life-through
window landscapes.
May: Returns to New York.
June: Visits Lewiston and joins Hamilton
Easter Field's art colony in Ogunquit, Maine. Does painting on glass.
Fall: Returns to New York and lives
in Field's Brooklyn Heights apartment.
1918: June 14: At Mabel Dodges
suggestion, travels to Taos, New Mexico, where he stays to do still lifes
and pastel landscapes.
November 6: Unhappy and concerned about
influenza epidemic. Moves to Santa Fe. Writes essays on Indians and the American
Landscape. First poems published in Poetry.
1919: February: Visits Sprinchorn
in La Canada, California. Meets Robert McAlmon at poetry reading. Visits San
Fransisco.
June: Returns
to Santa Fe to do second series of pastels and some oils of New Mexico landscape.
Sells painting to Santa Fe museum.
November
19: Returns to New York, stopping en route in Chicago, where he sees
Sherwood Anderson and Harriet Monroe.
1920: Winter: Works on New
Mexico paintings.
Spring: Becomes involved with the New
York Dada movement.
May 4: Appointed Secretary of the Societe
Anime, founded by Marcel Duchamp and Katherine Dreier.
June: Goes to Gloucester, Massachusetts
for duration of the summer.
October: Returns to New York where
he introduces McAlmon to William Carlos Williams and works on first issue
of Contact with them. Continues to publish poems in Poetry
and Little Review.
1921: Spring: Involved in
Societe Anime; publishes "Adventures in the Arts" with Boni, Liveright.
May 17: Stieglitz and Mitchell Kennerly
arrange a public auction of 117 works by Hartley at Anderson galleries, New
York. It raises almost $4,000 which is enough to get Hartley to Europe again.
July: Arrives in Paris where he visits
sculptor John Storrs in Orleans.
November: Arrives in Berlin, where
he enjoys inflated exchange rate and lives well.
1922: Paints still lifes
of fruit, bowls, baskets, and bread.
Fall: Does lithographs of similar still-life
arrangements.
1923: Spring: "Twenty-five
Poems" published by Marc Almon in Paris. Begins series of New Mexico
Recollections.
July: Nude pastel studies.
Fall: Goes to Vienna, does an Italian
tour where he remains in Florence for eight weeks. Also visits Arezzo, Rome
and Naples. Writes essays on art encountered on travels.
1924: Winter: Sails for New
York.
February: Arranges with a syndicate
of five businessmen for an annual stipend of $2,000 in exchange for paintings.
This enables him to live in Europe for the next four years.
Summer: Returns to Paris via London,
Brussels, Antwerp. Uses George Biddle's studio, where he continues New Mexico
Recollections and does series of fish still lifes and recollections of Maine.
1925: January: Participates
in a group show of American artists at the Galerie Briant-Robert, Paris.
August: Moves to Vence, France, where
he takes a year's lease on a house. Does landscapes of Italian Alps around
Gattiere and Caros. Writes "Provencal Preludes" and "Bach for
Breakfeast" poems.
1926: March: Visits Paris
and sees Cezanne exhibition at Bernheim-Jeune galleries, which rekindles his
interest in Cezanne.
October: Moves to Aix-en-Provence
December: Settles in Maison Maria,
in the Chateau Noir Forest, takes Cezanne's old studio and works in a Cezannesque
style.
1927: Winter: Travels to
Paris, Berlin, and Hamburg, returning to Aix in the summer. Does Mont Sainte-Victoire
paintings and pencil and silverpoint drawings of trees and rocks.
December: Goes to Paris.
1928: January: Arrives in
New York and then visits Chicago for his exhibition at Arts Club of Chicago.
Visits Arnold Ronnebeck in Denver, where Hartley lectures on Cezanne.
Summer: Visits friends in Conway, New
Hampshire, and spends two weeks in Georgetown, Maine with Gaston and Isabel
Lachaise and Paul and Rebecca Strand.
August 20: Sails again for France.
Winter: Stays in Paris in large apartment
and does seashell still-lifes.
1929: April: Returns to Maison
Maria in Aix-en-Provence, depressed over critical reaction to his painting
and to his long absence from home. Reads George Santayana, Miguel Unamuno,
and Christian mystics.
November: Travels to Marseilles where
he meets Hart Crane by chance; then goes on alone to Toulouse, Albi, Paris,
and London for Christmas. Proceeds to Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden.
1930: March 5: After farewell
tour of Europe, sails for New York, where he lives in Brooklyn Heights. Rebecca
Types his book of essays about Europe, "Varied Paterns."
June: Goes to Sugar Hill, near Franconia,
New Hampshire, for summer with a Polish friend who has a car and drives him
to painting sites. Visits Montreal and Quebec.
Fall: Returns for fall colors in New
Hampshire.
November: Returns to Brooklyn and lives
at Pierrepont Hotel, where he is severly stricken with bronchitis.
1931: Winter: Ill and depressed.
Cared for by Adelaide Kuntz and other friends.
Spring: Recieves a Guggenheim fellowship
and decides to go to Mexico.
July: Returns to Gloucester to paint
Dogtown Common; stays through November.
December: Returns to New York, visits
family in Cleveland for Christmas.
1932: March: Takes a ship
to Vera Cruz and then goes to Mexico City.
April 26: Exhibition "The Return
of the Native" at the Downtown gallery in New York.
April 27: Hart Crane commits suicide
on his way back to the U.S. after being in Mexico on a Guggenheim fellowship.
May: Hartley moves to Cuernavaca because
of his health problems caused by the altitude in Mexico City. Has a studio
with a view of Popocatepetl and paints several versions of the volcano. Has
access to library of occcult literature. Executes Mexico mystical fantasy
pictures.
November: Included in the first Whitney
Biennial. Returns to Mexico City.
1933: February: Exhibition
held at Galeria de la Escuela Central de Artes Plasticas, Mexico City of his
year's work.
March: Denied renewal for second year
of Guggenheim fellowship.
April: Sails from Vera Cruz for Hamburg, where he stays for
the summer.
September: Determines to paint Alps
and goes to Garmisch-Partakenkirchen in Bavaria. Walks great distances in
the vicinity and does many drawings.
Winter: Executes paintings and lithographs
from studies. Travels to Munich. Reads Shakespeare and Gerturde Stein's "Autobiography
of Alice B. Toklas" and starts his own autobiography.
1934: February: Leaves Europe,
never to return. Arrives in New York.
March 29: Employed by the WPA in the
easel painting division; rebels against constraints and quits after one month.
July: Returns to Gloucester and does
second series of Dogtown works.
Fall: Returns to New York.
1935: January 4: Destroys
one hundred paintings and drawings in storage because he cannot afford to
pay storage bill. Very ill and depressed.
February: Included in the "Abstract
Painting in America" exhibition at the Whitney Museum.
Summer: Travels to Bermuda to recuperate.
Executes flower and fish 'fancies.'
September: Sails for Lunenberg, Nova
Scotia, also staying Blue Rocks.
November: Boards with Francis Mason
family on Eastern Points island.
December: Returns to New York.
1936: January 29: Applies
for an assignment with the WPA and works until May 14.
March: Exhibition at An American Place
received well.
April: Gives lecture entitled "And
the Nude Has Descended the Staircase" at the museum of Modern Art in
connection with a Surrealist exhibition. Continues publishing essays in various
periodicals.
July: Returns to Eastern Points to
live with Masons; does third Dogtown series from memory.
September: Alty and Donny Mason drown
in a hurricane with their cousin Allan. Hartley is included in the "New
Horizons in American Art" exhibition, at the Museum of Modern Art.
December: Hartley returns to New York.
1937: April 20: Last exhibition
with Stieglitz held at An American Place. Writes "On the Subject of Nativeness-
A Tribute to Maine" for the catalogue. Hudson Walker takes nine paintings
from the show for his own gallery.
June: Hartley visits his family in
Auburn, Maine. Rents house in Georgetown near Gaston Lachaise's home; stays
for five months and talks of becoming 'the' painter of Maine.
December: Moves to Portland, Maine
for the winter.
1938: February: Goes to New
York for first solo exhibition at the Hudson Walker Gallery.
Summer: Resides off of Vinalhaven,
an island off of Rockland, Maine. Works on seascapes and 'archaic portraits'
of Nova Scotia people and Ryder.
November: Spends a week visiting in
Lewiston and Auburn.
Winter: Moves to Boston.
1939: February: Goes to New
York.
March: In second solo exhibition at
Walker Gallery, exhibits first 'archaic portraits.'
June: Returns to Maine, staying in
Portland, Lewiston, Auburn, and then Bagaduce in West Brookville as guest
of Claire Spencer and John Evans. Waldo Pierce takes him to Corea, Maine,
where Hartley decides to live the next season.
September: Moves to Bangor for the
Winter and teaches art classes.
October: Takes eight-day trip to Mt.
Katahdin in Maine.
November: Works on Katahdin pictures
in Bangor.
December: Exhibition at Symphony Hall
is well recieved.
1940: January: Recieves $300
prize for "End of Hurricane" in the Pennsylvania Academy annual
exhibit.
March: Visits New York for third solo
exhibition at Walker Gallery, in which he shows first Katahdin paintings and
figural works.
August: Boards with Forest and Katie
Young, a lobster fisherman and his wife, in Corea. Hartley works on figure
and religious paintings. Wins J. Henry Scheidt Memorial Prize at Pennsylvania
Academy of the Fine Arts. Publishes "Androscoggin", a collection
of poems with Leon Tebbetts, a Maine publisher.
1941: January: Moves to Bangor
for several months.
March: Goes to New York and lives in
Winslow Hotel.
July: Returns to Maine where he visits
Portland and Old Orchard Beach, where he does studies of figures on the beach,
and then moves back to Corea. Concentrates on writing and revises his autobiography
("Somehow A Past"), "Cleophas and His Own" (about his
Nova Scotia experience), and "The Spangle of Existence" (another
collection of essays). Publishes second volume of poetry, "Sea Burial",
with Leon Tebbetts. Winter
Travels to Cincinnati for joint exhibition with Stuart Davis at Cincinnati
Art Museum, then to Cleveland for Christmas with family.
1942: Gives lecture at Cincinnati
Art Museum, "Is Art Necessary?"
March: Exhibition held at MacBeth Gallery,
New York.
Summer: Returns to Corea. Paul Rosenberg
becomes his dealer.
November: First exhibition at Paul
Rosenberg and Company, New York.
December: "Lobster Fishermen at
Corea" wins Fourth Painting Purchase Prize ($2000) at Metropolitan Museum
of Art's "Artists for Victory" exhibition.
1943: January: Returns to
New York. Writes last series of poems, "Patterns for Prayers."
Summer: Returns to Corea. Is very ill
most of the summer.
September 2: Dies of heart failure
in hospital at Ellsworth, Maine.