Art Institute of Chicago

The Last of New England—The Beginning of New Mexico

Marsden Hartley (American, 1877–1943)

Date

1918–19

Medium

Oil on paperboard

Culture

United States

Department

Arts of the Americas

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

In this painting, Marsden Hartley depicted an imagined scene in which the fallen trees of a New England forest in the foreground transition to the golden hills of New Mexico beyond. Weary of the East Coast, the artist spent 18 months in the Southwest in 1918–19, believing that he could find rejuvenation in nature. Here, thick black lines define the Southwestern landscape, which he saw as alive with expressive potential. He wrote to Alfred Stieglitz, “I like the country very well, for it is big and clean and true, and there is nothing dirty standing between one and the sunlight, as there is in the east.” Like many artists who lived in New England at this time, he pictured the Southwest as uninhabited and unspoiled, overlooking the centuries of civilizations in the region.

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