Landscape Drawings from the Marsden Hartley Memorial Collection

June 12 – October 3, 2009

Marsden Hartley was born in Lewiston and during his lifetime expressed the hope that a memorial collection be established in his hometown. In 1951, the heirs of the Marsden Hartley estate left a generus gift to Bates College, the last remaining effects from Corea, Maine, where Hartley lived and kept a studio.

In 1955, Hartley’s niece, Miss Norma G. Berger, made an additional gift to the collections. This gift included ninety-nine drawings from two sketchbooks and works by other artists in Hartley’s personal collection. These drawings, made in ink and graphite, span several decades, cover a wide range of subjects, and comprise the largest collection of the artist’s work in this medium. Many served as studies for some of the artist’s most important paintings. A selection of the ninety-nine drawings in the Marsden Hartley Memorial Collection are exhibited each summer.