Visitors looking at paintings from the “Marsden Hartley’s Maine” show at The Met Breuer Museum in New York. Hartley was a native of Maine and the exhibition showcases his landscapes and portraits of Maine. Maine’s tourism agency has created itineraries that match the artwork for travelers who’d like to visit the places depicted in the paintings.
NEW YORK — A little bit of Maine has come to a Manhattan museum with the opening of “Marsden Hartley’s Maine.” And for travelers who want to see the places depicted in the paintings, there’s a companion itinerary for visiting Maine.
The exhibition at The Met Breuer museum includes 90 paintings and sketches, including Hartley’s depictions of Mount Katahdin, the coast, the woods and other Maine landscapes.
Visit Maine, the state’s tourism agency, has compiled itineraries for Hartley fans curious to see the places that inspired him. In addition to Katahdin, destinations include Penobscot Bay, Vinalhaven and Hurricane Island, Georgetown and Fox Island, the Schoodic Peninsula, Camden Hills as seen from Baker’s Island, Lovell and Kezar Lake, Robin Hood Cove and Madawaska. The itineraries come with suggestions for lodging and dining.
Many of Hartley’s works incorporate a bold Modernist style and dark palette, including autumn reds and winter scenes, distinguishing them from the light-filled, postcard-perfect summer seascapes that so often represent the state’s natural beauty.
Ironically, Hartley himself was not a fan of tourism in his home state, writing of Maine’s nickname, “Vacationland,” that “the word shivers down the spine.”
The show will be on display in New York through June 18 before a run at the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, July 8-Nov. 12.
Hartley, who declared himself “The Painter of Maine” in an essay, was born in Lewiston in 1877 and lost both his mother and stepmother while growing up. He spent extended periods of time away from his native state, studying at art schools in Ohio and New York, and later living in Paris, Berlin and elsewhere, keeping company with the intellectuals and artists of his era. A show at Alfred Steiglitz’s gallery in New York launched his career. He spent the final years of his life in his home state.
The Met Breuer show includes a few works by other artists who are seen as having influenced Hartley’s Modernist style, including Winslow Homer, known for his landscapes of the Maine coast, and the Japanese artist Hiroshige.
The show also includes examples of what the museum calls Hartley’s “hypermasculine” portraits of lumberjacks, fishermen and other working men.
Marsden Hartley’s Maine
Through June 18 at The Met Breuer, 75th Street and Madison Avenue, Manhattan:
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