Still Life: Rope and Shells

1936

Marsden Hartley American, 1877-1943

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About the Artwork

American modernist Marsden Hartley called paintings like this "sea signatures," finding their subjects "in the shape of shells -- crabs -- piece of rope and little things I pick up as I walk these shores alone -- each day." Hartley painted this still life in the summer of 1936 while boarding with a family of fishermen on East Point Island in Nova Scotia. Rendered using a limited color palatte, this flat and abstracted painting shows a scattered collection of seashells and torn length of rope against a brown background. In a letter to his friend and art dealer Alfred Stieglitz, Hartley announced that he had "only just decided to return to monochrome as being colorful enough - inasmuch as spectrum tones weary my eyes down to an ache."

Title Still Life: Rope and Shells

Artwork Date 1936

Artist Marsden Hartley

Life Dates 1877-1943

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on academy board

Dimensions Overall: 15 7/8 × 12 inches (40.3 × 30.5 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Founders Society Purchase, Merrill Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 41.87

Markings

Signed Signed, lower left: M. H.

Provenance

1941-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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