Marsden Hartley found his deepest inspiration in Maine, producing numerous paintings that reflect the state’s coastlines, towns and interiors. The Met Breuer presentation of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is showing “Marsden Hartley’s Maine” through June 18; the exhibition then travels to the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine, where it will be on view from July 8–Nov. 12.
Active in the early 20th century, Hartley absorbed influences from Japanese printmakers such as Utagawa Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai, as well as American artists like Winslow Homer and Albert Pinkham Ryder, and French modernist Paul Cézanne. His paintings are distinguished by rich, saturated color and bold compositions that bring Maine’s rocky shores, small towns and domestic interiors to vivid life.
The exhibition presents roughly 90 paintings and drawings selected from Hartley’s extensive body of work, offering a concentrated look at his Maine subjects and artistic development. For visitors who want to see the real places that inspired Hartley, Maine’s official tourism site provides a map tracing his footsteps and lists museums, libraries and other locations where his work and related material can be viewed.