The Last of New England—The Beginning of New Mexico
1918–19
Medium
Oil on paperboard
Dimensions
61 × 76.3 cm (24 × 30 in.)
Classification
oil on panel
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
65925
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
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 a...
About the Artist
Marsden Hartley · 1877–1943
Marsden Hartley (1877–1943) was one of the most significant and searching figures of American modernism, an artist whose restless travels and personal intensity drove him to synthesize European avant-garde currents with a deeply American sensibility rooted in landscape, loss, and spiritual longing. Born in Lewiston, Maine, he studied at the Cleveland School of Art and later at the National Academy...