Marsden Hartley
American, 1877 – 1943
Maritime Alps, Vence, No. 9, 1925 – 1926
Oil on canvas
31 3/8 × 31 7/16 in. (79.7 × 79.9 cm.)
41 1/8 × 41 1/8 × 2 1/2 in. (104.5 × 104.5 × 6.4 cm.) (frame)
Purchase, Museum Art Fund  1960.3

Chasing Cezanne
In 1925, drawn to mountain imagery and seeking spiritual solace in nature, Hartley leased a cottage in Vence, a small village nestled in the Maritime Alps in southern France. There, inspired by Paul Cezanne’s paintings of Mont Sainte-Victoire, Hartley created a series of landscapes depicting the ravine where the River Loup flows under a railway viaduct to the sea. In these canvases, Hartley adopts Cezanne’s method of rendering form and volume through built-up blocks of color. The striking  juxtapositions of pinks, greens, and purples suggest light and shadow dancing across the jagged mountains.