Marsden Hartley

Born and raised in Maine, Marsden Hartley began his career as a landscape painter. An avid reader of Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Walt Whitman, Hartley infused his paintings with psychological and spiritual intensity. He traveled to Europe, where he was influenced by Cubism, Expressionism, and Wassily Kandinsky’s spiritual writings about art. Drawing upon these influences in his work, Hartley’s paintings expanded the scope of modern painting in the United States.