Lobster Fishermen (Marsden Hartley)

Lobster Fishermen is an early 20th century painting by American artist Marsden Hartley. Done in oil on masonite, the work depicts a group of lobster fishermen in Hartley's native state of Maine. Considered part of Hartley's 'Maine Series', Lobster Fishermen is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Lobster Fishermen
ArtistMarsden Hartley
Year1940-41
MediumOil on hardboard (masonite)
Dimensions75.6 cm × 103.8 cm (29.8 in × 40.9 in)
LocationMetropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

Description

Background

Born in Lewiston, Maine, Marsden Hartley left his home state in the early 20th century to start his career as an artist.[1] After some successes and failures, Hartley returned to his native Maine in 1937, and quickly established himself as one of the foremost painters in and of the state.[1] Having lived in cities for much of his life, Marsden was comforted by the relative isolation that his residence in Maine provided him; this respect came to be represented in much of Marsden's body of works, many of which depicted Maine's rugged landscapes and people.[1][2]

Marsden's return to Maine coincided with the rise of the Folk Art movement, which valued the production of art concerning folk themes. Marsden himself developed a self-consciously "primitive" style of painting and this style is present in his Maine paintings, including Lobster Fishermen.[2][3]

Painting

Lobster Fishermen itself depicts a group of lobster fishermen (participants in Maine's iconic lobster industry) posed on a dock. The painting was rendered by Hartley in 1940-41 while the artist was occupying an abandoned church in the fishing village of Corea, Maine. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's profile of the piece notes that Lobster Fishermen is similar to Paul Cézanne's painting series The Card Players.[2]

Study for Lobster Fishermen, painted by Hartley in 1940

A study (produced in 1940) for Lobster Fishermen is also in the Met's collection.[4]

gollark: It pretends to be "simple", but it isn't because there are bizarre special cases everywhere to make stuff appear to work.
gollark: So of course, lol no generics.
gollark: Well, golang has no (user-defined) generics, you see.
gollark: You can just use the filesystem to save state, it is less hassle.
gollark: Krist isn't *really* a cryptocurrency but it takes lots of ideas from them.

References
  1. Roberts, Norma J., ed. (1988), The American Collections, Columbus Museum of Art, p. 78, 82
  2. "Lobster Fishermen". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
  3. Donna M. Cassidy in Marsden Hartley. Ed. Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser. Exh. cat., Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford. New Haven, 2002
  4. "Study for Lobster Fishermen". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.