Evening Storm, Schoodic, Maine

Recognized as one of the leading artists of American Modernism, painter Marsden Hartley developed a unique style that largely revolved around landscape, strong colors and geometric abstraction. Hartley was born in 1877 in Lewiston, Maine, but when he was eight his mother died and he was sent to live with a relative in the nearby city of Auburn, where he endured a lonesome and unhappy childhood. He rejoined his immediate family in Ohio in 1893, and began studying at the Cleveland School of Art. His work caught the attention of one of the schools trustees, who granted him the financial means to continue his studies in New York City for five years, beginning in 1899; his skill as an artist improved dramatically, and in 1902, while studying at the National Academy of Design, he won the school’s Suydam Silver Medal for still-life drawing.

Lewiston, ME, United States