Dialogues with the Self: New Thoughts on Marsden Hartley's Self-Portraits

Abstract

Scholars have long acknowledged the crucial role biography plays in Marsden Hartley's oeuvre, as many have used his autobiography Somehow a Past and his homosexuality to interpret his recurring motifs. As a recognized writer and painter, he figured prominently in American modernism and was among the first to explore abstraction as his prime expression. Heavily influenced by European models, he forged a mature style drawn from German expressionism and his affinity for the mystic transcendentalism of writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James, and Walt Whitman. A lifelong transient, he stood apart from those in the Alfred Stieglitz circle (Figure 1), spending more time outside the United States than in, returning at the end of his life to become “the painter of Maine.” General consensus allows that Hartley's early life influenced his images directly; but, more specifically, art historian Bruce Robertson suggests that Hartley turned to self-portraiture in his last years to work through childhood issues of loss and abandonment. Following suit, this essay considers these tender issues further with a reading of four late paintings, of which two are not yet recognized as self-portraits.The paintings themselves are treated as sites to explore and define the self, in the words of the psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott, as a “potential space” in which the artist reengages with and attempts to resolve past issues. More specifically, Winnicott describes a psychological transition, a buffer zone between mind and reality, used to cope with maturational issues. In this metaphorical space, one creates symbols and forms object relationships, meaning, a personal language with which to negotiate the real world and one's place in it. All cultural production, Winnicott argues, results from this interim process, which acts as a defensive filter to mitigate harsh truths — in Hartley's case, the loss of both parents and feelings of rejection. From this perspective, I focus narrowly on the symbolic arrangement by which identity issues merge with metaphysics, sex, and death. Although much has been written on these themes, I interpret the paintings' usefulness to Hartley, the ways that they functioned as tools, moving him toward personal integration. In dealing with issues of loss and mourning, I necessarily reflect on dark subject matter; even so, this study is not meant to represent the whole of Hartley's character. A complex person, he was not in a constant state of turmoil and, as Jonathan Weinberg, Donna Cassidy, and many others have demonstrated, Hartley was driven by much more than psychological angst. However, the lens of psychoanalysis (in this case, psychobiography and object relations) provides an additional way to interpret these late images.