Bust of Marsden Hartley
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
Jacques Lipchitz, who had fled war-torn Paris and emigrated to America in 1941, met the modernist painter Marsden Hartley in 1942. He recalled his eagerness to do a portrait of Hartley, whose face he considered "typically American" and "very sensitive." This penetrating portrayal was done the year before Hartley's death at sixty-six and poignantly captures the painter's age and melancholy. The monumentality of the profile is in marked contrast to the wasted and drawn features of the frontal view, with its tragic overtones. Lipchitz commented that this brooding likeness of a fellow artist had been "made for myself as an exercise and demonstration." In fact, it required twenty-seven life sittings to complete Hartley's portrait. This cast, one of seven, belonged to the collectors Edith and Milton Lowenthal, who also left the Museum a rich legacy of nine paintings by Marsden Hartley.
Caption
Jacques Lipchitz American, born Lithuania, 1891–1973. Bust of Marsden Hartley, 1942. Bronze, wood base, Overall: 21 1/8 x 9 x 13 1/4 in. (53.7 x 22.9 x 33.7 cm) Base only: 7 3/4 x 6 1/2 x 8 1/4 in. (19.7 x 16.5 x 21 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Edith and Milton Lowenthal Foundation, Inc. in memory of Carl L. Selden, 81.38. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 81.38_transp2735.jpg)
Collection
Collection
Artist
Title
Bust of Marsden Hartley
Date
1942
Medium
Bronze, wood base
Classification
Dimensions
Overall: 21 1/8 x 9 x 13 1/4 in. (53.7 x 22.9 x 33.7 cm) Base only: 7 3/4 x 6 1/2 x 8 1/4 in. (19.7 x 16.5 x 21 cm)
Signatures
Inscribed on back of neck: "J Lipchitz"; and below signature, a raised circle which possibly contains the artist's fingerprint.
Credit Line
Gift of the Edith and Milton Lowenthal Foundation, Inc. in memory of Carl L. Selden
Accession Number
81.38
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
The Brooklyn Museum holds a non-exclusive license to reproduce images of this work of art from the rights holder named here. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org. If you wish to contact the rights holder for this work, please email copyright@brooklynmuseum.org and we will assist if we can.
Frequent Art Questions
Who is this a bust of?
It's a bust of Marsden Hartley, an American artist affiliated with the American Modernist movement in the early to mid 1900s.It was made by the artist Jacques Lipchitz, who fled war-torn paris and emigrated to the US in 1941. Lipchitz considered Hartley's face "typically American" and "very sensitive" and was eager to do his portrait! It took 27 sittings to complete.
Have information?
Have information about an artwork? Contact us at
