Maine Woods

Artist: Marsden Hartley (American, 1877–1943)

Original Dimensions: 29 1/2" x 29 1/2"

Location: National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

About Artwork:  (1908) "Maine Woods represents a dense forest interior that emphasizes the verticality of the white birch trees pressed up against the picture plane. A snow-covered mountain is barely distinguishable at the upper right. Marsden Hartley adopted the Italian divisionist artist Giovanni Segantini’s “stitch” brushstroke, which he used to build up an image out of short, interlocking lines of pure color. He applied the pigment thickly and spontaneously, giving the painting a highly expressive character.

In the fall of 1908, Hartley moved to Maine and settled on a farm in Stoneham Valley near North Lovell, where he remained until March 1909. Working in isolation and enduring the severe winter conditions, he produced a large number of paintings, including Maine Woods, in his fully developed neo-impressionist style. The innovative, expressive, and spiritual quality of such works impressed Alfred Stieglitz—photographer and avant-garde art impresario—who arranged a solo exhibition for Hartley at his 291 gallery in New York in 1909. Although the show received mixed reviews and was a financial failure, it helped establish Hartley as a leading member of the American avant-garde." - (National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.)