Lobster Fishermen
Artist: Marsden Hartley (American, 1877–1943)
Original Dimensions: 29 3/4" x 40 7/8"
Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
About Artwork: (1940–41) "In the mid-1930s, after many restless years of personal and artistic exploration, Hartley reoriented his art on his home state of Maine. Aware of Maine’s reputation as a natural oasis from city life and responsive to the popularity of so-called folk art, Hartley developed a self-consciously "primitive" style. In 1940 he moved to the small coastal town of Corea, where he commandeered an abandoned church as a studio and painted this gathering of lobster fishermen on a wharf, arranged against an elevated view of the harbor. Like the card players who appear in an esteemed series of paintings by Paul Cézanne, whom Hartley revered, these rugged fishermen appear common, but essential to the region. In particular, the figure on the left towers over the scene, suggesting his archetypal presence." - (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

Panel content
Panel content