The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 28, 2024

Military

Military

1914–1915
(American, 1877–1943)
Framed: 73.5 x 63.5 x 3.5 cm (28 15/16 x 25 x 1 3/8 in.); Unframed: 60.6 x 50.2 cm (23 7/8 x 19 3/4 in.)

Did You Know?

Hartley was one of the first modern artists to paint abstractions.

Description

This abstract portrait is a memorial tribute to a German lieutenant named Karl von Freyburg with whom Hartley had been in love. The artist described von Freyburg’s death as an "unendurable agony," and created a series of deeply personal paintings in response. Here the shapes and color patterns suggest flags, banners, targets, epaulets, and other military paraphernalia.
  • 1981-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
    Probably 1956-1981
    Professor Nelson Goodman [1906-1998], Cambridge, MA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1935-probably 1956
    Robert Locher [1888-1956], Lancaster, PA, sold to Nelson Goodman
    After 1921-1935
    Charles Demuth [1883-1935], Lancaster, PA, by descent to Robert Locher
    1921-
    Albert C. Barnes [1872-1951], Philadelphia, PA
    1921
    (Hartley sale, Anderson Galleries, New York, May 10, 1921, as “Pre-War Pageant, 1913," sold to Albert C. Barnes)
    1914/1915-1921
    Collection of the artist
  • Nelson Goodman, letter to Sherman Lee, Dec. 21, 1981, in CMA curatorial file.
    Demuth Dialogue 3.4 (Spring 1985): 2.
    Mark Cole, email to Victoria Sears Goldman and Louis Adrean, Oct. 18, 2013, in CMA curatorial file.
    William Robinson, “Marsden Hartley’s Military,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 76.1 (Jan. 1989): 2-26.
    Nelson Goodman, letter to Sherman Lee, Dec. 21, 1981, in CMA curatorial file.
    Anderson Galleries, Inc. Seventy-Five Pictures by James N. Rosenburg and 117 Pictures by Marsden Hartley. 1921.
    Levin, Gail. "Hidden Symbolism in Marsden Hartley's Military Pictures." Arts Magazine 54, no. 2 (October 1979). Mentioned: p. 58
    Haskell, Barbara. Marsden Hartley. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art in association with New York University Press, 1980. Reproduced: p. 45, n. 43
    "The Year in Review for 1984." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72 (April 1985) Reproduced: n. 49
    Robinson, William H. "Marsden Hartley's Military." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 76 (January 1989) Mentioned: p. 2, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22; Reproduced: front cover illustration
    McDonnell, Patricia. "Indian Fantasy: Marsden Hartley's Myth of Amerika in Expressionist Berlin." North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin XVI (1993) Mentioned: p. 56; Reproduced: p. 58, no. 9
    Chong, Alan. European and American Painting in The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. Reproduced: p. 100
    Robertson, Bruce. Marsden Hartley. New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with The National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1995. Reproduced: p. 63
    French Regional & American Museums Exchange. Made in USA: L'art américain, 1908-1947. Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 2001. Reproduced: p. 91
    "L’art Américain débarque." Le Magazine: Arts & Spectacles (January 2002) Reproduced: unpaginated
    McDonnell, Patricia. "'Portrait of Berlin': Marsden Hartley and Urban Modernity in Expressionist Berlin." In Marsden Hartley, edited by Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser. New Haven: Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press, 2002. Mentioned: p. 40, 51, 54
    Voorhies, James Timothy, ed. My Dear Stieglitz: Letters of Marsden Hartley and Alfred Stieglitz, 1912-1915. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2002. Reproduced: no. 6, unpaginated
    McDonnell, Patricia. Painting Berlin Stories: Marsden Hartley, Oscar Bluemner, and the First American Avant-Garde in Expressionist Berlin. New York: Peter Lang, 2003. Mentioned: p. 97; Reproduced: p. 98, fig. 10
    Litt,Steven. "'Geometry' draws us in, yet theme fails to come full circle." The Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 18, 2006. Reproduced: p. J5
    Adams, Henry. Whats American about American Art? A Gallery Tour in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2008. Mentioned: p. 123; Reproduced: p. 122
    Cash, Sarah "Berlin Abstraction." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945, edited by Sarah Cash. Seattle: Marquand Books, Inc., 2011. Mentioned: p. 211
    McDonnell, Patricia, and Michael Plante. Dictated by Life: Marsden Hartley's German Paintings and Robert Indiana's Hartley Elegies. Minneapolis, MN: Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota; New York, NY: Distributed by D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, 1995. Reproduced: pp. 30, 55
    Chassey, Eric de. Made in USA: l'art américain, 1908-1943, entre nationalisme et internationalisme. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2001. Reproduced: p. 91
    Sims, Lowery Stokes. The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006. Mentioned: p. 118, no. 58; Reproduced: pp. 57, 64
  • The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).
    Made in U.S.A., l'art américain, 1908-1943, entre nationalisme et internationalisme [FRAME]. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, F-33000 Bordeaux, France (organizer) (October 5-December 31, 2001); Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes, Rennes, France (January 17-March 31, 2002); Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France (April 10-June 25, 2002).
    Dictated by Life: Marsden Hartley's German Paintings and Robert Indiana's Hartley Elegies. Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN (organizer) (co-organizer) (April 14-June 11, 1995); Terra Museum of American Art (July 1-September 10, 1995); The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL (October 1-December 2, 1995).
    Year in Review for 1984. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 3-May 5, 1985).
  • {{cite web|title=Military|url=false|author=Marsden Hartley|year=1914–1915|access-date=28 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1981.83