Mont Sainte-Victoire (or Mountain of Holy Victory) in southern France captured the attention of a number of artists, including the pioneering French artist Paul Cézanne (say-ZAHN), who painted this view multiple times over his long career. Appearing decades later, Hartley’s depictions of the peak may seem derivative. On the contrary, Hartley intended these works as homage to Cézanne and his contribution to the development of modern art. This is noticeable in the quick, parallel brush strokes Hartley applied to create his subject matter. Unlike Cézanne, the younger artist has grouped the brush strokes together to form bands of bright colors. These regions of color build the composition like a jigsaw puzzle when looking at it from the ground up.
Below is an image of Paul Cézanne’s Mont Sainte-Victoire. Can you spot what is similar between Cézanne’s painting and Hartley’s work of the same scene? What is different?
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July 22, 2020
Exhibition History"Marsden Hartley: The Earth Is All I Know of Wonder", Louisiana Museum of Modern Art & The Contributors, Sep 19, 2019 - Jan 19, 2020
"Selected Works from the Des Moines Art Center's Permanent Collection," organized by the Waterloo Municipal Galleries, sponsored by the National Bank of Waterloo, Oct. 24 - Nov. 20, 1983, (circulated to: Charles H. Macnider Museum, Mason City, Jan. 15 - Feb. 26, 1984; Muscatine Art Center, April 1- May 13, 1984; Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, May 27 - July 1, 1984; Sioux City Art Center, July 15 - Aug. 26, 1984)
"Marsden Hartley," Whitney Museum of American Art, N.Y., Mar. 4 - May 25, 1980, (circulated to: Art Institute of Chicago, June 10 - Aug. 3, 1980; Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth, Sept. 5 - Oct. 26, 1980; University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, Nov. 12, 1980 - Jan. 4, 1981; Portland Art Museum, Oregon, Jan. 28- Mar. 8, 1981)
"Mid-America Collects," Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, Oct. 23 - Nov. 27, 1977
"The Kirsch Years 1936-1958," A testimonial exhibition assembled from the permanent collections of the University of Nebraska Art Galleries, Lincoln, and the Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines Art Center, Jan. 7 - Feb. 10, 1974; University of Nebraska Art Galleries, Feb. 25 - Mar. 31, 1974
"Six Decades of American Painting of the Twentieth Century," Des Moines Art Center, Feb. 10 - Mar. 12, 1961
"Current Painting Styles and Their Sources," Des Moines Art Center, 10th Anniversary Exhibition, June 1 - July 20, 1958
Published References"Six Decades of American Painting of the Twentieth Century," Des Moines Art Center, 1961, exh. cat. no.85
THE BARNES FOUNDATION JOURNAL OF THE ART DEPARTMENT, Vol.V, Autumn 1974, No.2, ill. for "Expression," pp. 3-32, ill. pl. no.51
"The Kirsch Years 1936 - 1958," Des Moines Art Center and the University of Nebraska Art Galleries, Lincoln, 1974, exh. cat. no.23
"Mid-America Collects," Oklahoma Art Center, 1977, exh. cat. ref. no.23, b/w ill. (Short article on the history of the Des Moines Art Center's collection by James Demetrion, Director)
"Marsden Hartley," Whitney Museum of American Art, N. Y. and New York University Press, N. Y. and London, 1980, exh. cat. no.59, b/w ill. pl.39, p.89
"Selected Works from the Des Moines Art Center Permanent Collection," Waterloo Municipal Galleries, IA, 1983, exh. cat. no.15
"Marsden Hartley: The Earth Is All I Know of Wonder", Louisiana Museum of Modern Art & The Contributors, 2019, exh. cat. no. 54, p. 50 (see also text on p. 13, paragraph 2)
DES MOINES ART CENTER: SELECTED PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND WORKS ON PAPER, 1985, ref. pp.80 & 81
Elizabeth Hutton Turner, AMERICAN ARTISTS IN PARIS 1919 - 1929, UMI Research Press, 1988, ill. p.177
Jeanne Hokin, PINACLES AND PYRAMIDS: THE ART OF MARSDEN HARTLEY, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1993, fig.30, b/w ill. p.63, copy p.62
AN UNCOMMON VISION: THE DES MOINES ART CENTER, Des Moines Art Center, 1998, ref. p.132, color ill. p.133
"Current Painting Styles and Their Sources," Des Moines Art Center, 1958, exh. cat. ref.
Judit Gesko, CEZANNE TO MALEVICH, Museum of Fine Arts, Budepest. 2021, illus. pg. 38, credit, pg. 464
Canvas: 31 3/4 × 39 1/4 in. (80.6 × 99.7 cm)
Image (visible): 31 1/2 × 39 in. (80 × 99.1 cm)
Images (1)
Audio (1)
DSM Speaks Audio Tour with Christina Fernandez Morrow, Community Member
Run Time: 2:30
Recorded by Christina Fernandez Morrow, CultureALL Community Ambassador / 2022
I wrote a report on the life and art of Marsden Hartly in high school. On its own that memory is pretty unextraordinary. It wasn’t the report that this piece unlocked in my memory, it was the context of it. The report is the only written assignment I remember doing for my high school art class. It was my first time taking a formal art class although I’d been drawing in notebooks for a decade. The class became my refuge. My high school was overwhelmingly white and wealthy. I was neither, so I couldn’t relate to my classmates. I felt out of place, and I struggled with whether I belonged and I had a bad case of imposter syndrome. But in the art studio, I escaped all that. The class brought out my talent and challenged me to stretch my thinking beyond what was in front of me. I also learned the difference artist quality supplies could make in my work. It sparked my love of working in bright colors, like the deep blues, warm pinks, and vibrant yellows in this piece. I learned to navigate new mediums like oil paint sticks, pastels, and high-quality colored pencils, which are still my favorite. The warm colors emulate the warmth I felt in the art studio. Where the instructor became more than a teacher, he was my mentor and friend. Mr. Bough encouraged me to be bold, despite my instinct to fade into the background. He introduced me to ABBA which played in my head as I examined the ridges of the mountains and the mystique of the sunset. I felt a sense of peace, wonderment, familiarity, and safety. All the feelings I longed for during that time in my life when I first learned of Hartley. I must admit, I didn’t want to be drawn to a white man’s art. Because white male artists like Hartley have dominated art for so many centuries, erasing and devaluing artists who look like me. But the piece took me back to the beginning of my artistic journey, when I first dared to be seen and heard, in a place that was often hostile and unkind. To the art studio where I was free to be me, envision who I could be, and dream beyond what was in front of me. That is the gift that this piece gave me and why I felt drawn to it. To remember where I’ve been and what I’ve overcome.
Christina Fernandez Morrow Bio
Christina Fernandez-Morrow is a sought-after speaker, writer and educator. She loves knitting in exotic locales and laughing with the kids in her life.
DES MOINES SPEAKS
DSM Speaks are short audio reflections on artwork in our permanent collection, written and voiced by diverse members of our community. Contributors to this program were selected in partnership with CultureALL and the Des Moines Art Center. We hope by elevating these diverse ways of seeing we can encourage all visitors to connect more deeply and to see themselves and their identities within our walls.
