Marsden Hartley: The Biography of an American Artist

by Townsend Ludington

Overview

"A penetrating biography.... Ludington offers a psychological portrait of an intense, contradictory, scornful, but gentle man who transcended his nineteenth-century roots in Lewiston, Maine, to view Europe as his home and to make a distinctive contribution to modernism."—Kirkus Reviews

"Drawing on Hartley's letters and other writings as well as on the correspondence and reminiscences of the artist's friends, Ludington traces the restless career of the painter.... [Hartley] had troubled friendships with some of the most important artists and writers of his day—Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, Fairfield Porter, Eugene O'Neill, Georgia O'Keeffe, and others. His relationship with Alfred Stieglitz, who supported him financially and exhibited his work,... runs like a leitmotif through the book, and indicates Hartley's character—demanding, touchy, often ungrateful but also compelling.... This frank and unsentimental account of a life of contradictions and paradoxes returns one to the artist's paintings with a fresh eye."—Publishers Weekly

"Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) had a virtually unique role as a modernist painter. He was notable not only for his powerful canvases but for his poetry and essays. Townsend Ludington's astute portrait of the artist focuses upon his cosmopolitan sensibility in a generation melding modern art with an American tradition of mystical idealism.... Ludington views Hartley as an essential American artist embarked on a spiritual odyssey."—Robert Taylor, Boston Globe

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801485800
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	11/15/1998
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Townsend Ludington holds the Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professorship of English and American Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His previous books include Seeking the Spiritual: The Paintings of Marsden Hartley, also from Cornell.

What People are Saying About This

Robert Taylor

Marsden Hartley (1877–1943) had a virtually unique role as a modernist painter. He was notable not only for his powerful canvases but for his poetry and essays. Townsend Ludington's astute portrait of the artist focuses upon his cosmopolitan sensibility in a generation melding modern art with an American tradition of mystical idealism.... Ludington views Hartley as an essential American artist embarked on a spiritual odyssey.

From the Publisher

A penetrating biography.... Ludington offers a psychological portrait of an intense, contradictory, scornful, but gentle man who transcended his nineteenth-century roots in Lewiston, Maine, to view Europe as his home and to make a distinctive contribution to modernism.

Editorial Reviews

"Marsden Hartley (1877–1943) had a virtually unique role as a modernist painter. He was notable not only for his powerful canvases but for his poetry and essays. Townsend Ludington's astute portrait of the artist focuses upon his cosmopolitan sensibility in a generation melding modern art with an American tradition of mystical idealism.... Ludington views Hartley as an essential American artist embarked on a spiritual odyssey."

Robert Taylor

"A penetrating biography.... Ludington offers a psychological portrait of an intense, contradictory, scornful, but gentle man who transcended his nineteenth-century roots in Lewiston, Maine, to view Europe as his home and to make a distinctive contribution to modernism."

"Drawing on Hartley's letters and other writings as well as on the correspondence and reminiscences of the artist's friends, Ludington traces the restless career of the painter.... Hartley had troubled friendships with some of the most important artists and writers of his day—Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, Fairfield Porter, Eugene O'Neill, Georgia O'Keeffe, and others. His relationship with Alfred Stieglitz, who supported him financially and exhibited his work,... runs like a leitmotif through the book, and indicates Hartley's character—demanding, touchy, often ungrateful but also compelling.... This frank and unsentimental account of a life of contradictions and paradoxes returns one to the artist's paintings with a fresh eye."

From the Publisher

Drawing on Hartley's letters and other writings as well as on the correspondence and reminiscences of the artist's friends, Ludington ( Twentieth-Century Odyssey: The Life of John Don Passos ) traces the restless career of the painter from Maine (1877-1943). Hartley, who spent his life moving between Europe and the U.S., had troubled friendships with some of the most important artists and writers of his day--Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, Fairfield Porter, Eugene O'Neill, Georgia O'Keeffe and others. His relationship with Alfred Stieglitz, who supported him financially and exhibited his work at his Manhattan gallery 291, runs like a leitmotif through the book and indicates Hartley's character--demanding, touchy, often ungrateful but also compelling. Lonely, insecure, ambivalent about his homosexuality, Hartley was drawn into curious attachments and questionable allegiances, even embracing Hitlerism; yet he was able to form a close bond with a working-class family with whom he lived in Nova Scotia. This frank and unsentimental account of a life of contradictions and paradoxes returns one to the artist's paintings with a fresh eye. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Hartley (1877-1943), avant-garde American painter and poet, has found a model biographer. This first major study of the artist is accessible and appreciative, yet even-handed in weighing the man's accomplishments and shortcomings. Among the incidents described is Hartley's traumatic childhood loss of his mother, the tension between his homosexuality and a harsh New England upbringing, his liberating trips to Europe, the bursts of creative energy alternating with periods of loneliness and despair, and his sometimes difficult relations with friends and colleagues such as Alfred Stieglitz and William Carlos Williams. This book should help renew an interest in Hartley's achievements. Recommended for large art collections. (Photos not seen.)-- Stephen Rees, Bucks Cty. Free Lib., Levittown, Pa.

Library Journal