New Mexico Recollection #6

New Mexico Recollection #6

1922
Artist
Marsden Hartley, American, 1877-1943
Country
United States, United States
Object
painting
Medium
Oil paint on canvas
Accession Number
2001.455
Credit Line
William Sr. and Dorothy Harmsen Collection

Marsden Hartley, New Mexico Recollection #6, 1922. Oil on canvas; 25 ¼ x 35 ½ in. Denver Art Museum: William Sr. and Dorothy Harmsen Collection, 2001.455

Dimensions
frame height: 33 1/4 in, 84.455 cm; frame width: 43 1/4 in, 109.855 cm; frame depth: 3 in, 7.62 cm; image height: 25 1/4 in, 64.1350 cm; image width: 35 1/2 in, 90.1700 cm
Inscription
No signature is evident except on a piece of the original stretcher now attached to the back of the painting as a label.
Department
Petrie Institute of Western American Art
Collection
Petrie Institute of Western American Art

Marsden Hartley traveled to New Mexico for the first and only time in 1918. He found the Southwest both inspiring and challenging, writing, “There is nothing in conventional esthetics that will express the red deposits, the mesas, and the Canyon of the Rio Grande.”  Even after moving away, he continued to ponder the Southwest, later producing the New Mexico Recollections series, including this work, in Berlin. He reprised the subject in unconventional ways, using atypical colors and little detail.

Marsden Hartley viajó a Nuevo México por primera y única vez en 1918. El Suroeste le pareció inspirador y a la vez desafiante: “No existe nada en la estética convencional que pueda expresar los depósitos rojos en la roca, las mesas, el cañón del río Grande”. Incluso ya lejos, siguió recordando el Suroeste y produjo, desde Berlín, la serie Recuerdos de Nuevo México, que incluye esta obra. Luego retomó el tema en formas menos convencionales, con colores atípicos y pocos detalles.

Known Provenance
"Private collection"; (Hammer Galleries), New York, NY; William Sr. and Dorothy Harmsen, Golden, CO,1975; Gifted to the Denver Art Museum, 2001.
Exhibition History
  • Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1986-1987
  • "Transforming the Western Image"—Palm Springs Desert Museum, 02/21/1992 - 12/20/1992
  • "The Search for an American Modernism: Marsden Hartley and New Mexico"—Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, 01/25/2008 - 05/11/2008
  • Amon Carter Museum of American Art, 6/14/2008 - 8/24/2008
  • "BackStory: Western American Art in Context"—History Colorado, 3/18/2017 - 2/11/2018