Mar 06, 2025 - Sale 2696

Sale 2696 - Lot 96

Price Realized: $ 13,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000
MARSDEN HARTLEY (1877 - 1943)
Alpspitz, Mittenwald Road (Dreitorspitze from Gschwandtnerbauer).

Charcoal on board, circa 1933-34. 457x762 mm; 18x30 inches.

Provenance
The artist.
with M. Knoedler & Company, New York, circa 1944–1952.
Estate of the artist, inventory #289.
Purchased from the above by Kraushaar Galleries, New York, December 1953.
Robert Tobin, San Antonio.
Tobin Surveys, Inc., San Antonio.
Tobin Foundation, San Antonio.
Christie's, New York, May 24, 2007, lot 149 (label).
Acquired from the above by Michael Altman Fine Art., New York.
Private collection, circa 2008.

Exhibited
"Marsden Hartley," The Museum of Modern Art, New York, October 24, 1944 - January 14, 1945; Lawrence Art Museum, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, February 22 - March 15, 1945; University of Texas, Austin, April 1 - 29, 1945; Taylor Museum, Colorado Springs, May 13 - June 20, 1945; San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, June 24 - July 22, 1945; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, September 16 - October 14, 1945; MacMurray College, Jacksonville, Illinois, October 28-November 25, 1945; Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, December 9, 1945 - January 6, 1946; Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, N.Y., January 20-February 17, 1946, (as Alpspitz, Mittenwald Road, label).
"Marsden Hartley in Bavaria," Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, September 23 - November 5, 1989; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, November 30, 1989 - January 28, 1990; Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, February 15 - April 15, 1990; Baruch College Gallery of the City University of New York, New York, May 2-June 7, 1990. no. 23 (as Dreitorspitze from Gschwandtnerbauer, illustrated).

Literature
G. Alan Chidsey, Volume of Photographs of Paintings, Pastels, Drawings and Lithographs by Marsden Hartley Washington, D.C 1944-1960 Archives of American Art, G. Alan Chidsey Papers, #289 (as Alpspitz, Mittenwald Road).
E. McCausland, Elizabeth McCausland Papers, 1838-1995, bulk 1920-1960 Series 6: Marsden Hartley, 1900-1964 (Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.), box 15, folder 11, frame 24 (as Dreitorspitze).

Note
This work is included by Gail R. Scott in the Marsden Hartley Legacy Project: Complete Paintings and Works on Paper with Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine.
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Additional Details

After Marsden Hartley's tumultuous time in Mexico on a Guggenheim Fellowship, he traveled to Germany in 1933. While Hartley enjoyed Berlin and Hamburg's societal and cultural atmosphere, it was the Bavarian mountains which fascinated and inspired him. The mountains lent a new lyricism and spirituality to Hartley's works. In the introductory text to the exhibition Marsden Hartley in Bavaria (1989) William Salzillo notes "The calligraphic directness of his Bavarian drawings is reminiscent of musical notation, resembling musical notation it exists to provide directions for the subsequent performance." This charming and primitive environment sparked a renaissance in Hartley's career and spirit and would have a significant impact on his future landscape paintings. According to the Marsden Hartley Legacy Project, there are few depictions of the Dreitorspitze peak which Hartley created from this pivotal period; including only two oils, two drawings (aside from the present lot), and one lithograph.