Flowers in Goblet #2

Art Historical Context

Marsden Hartley's *Flowers in Goblet2* (1923) captures the quiet elegance of a still life in a striking black lithograph on smooth wove paper. The irregular image, measuring about 17⅝ × 10⁹⁄₁₆ inches, depicts a simple arrangement of flowers in alet, rendered with bold contrasts and fluid lines that evoke the artist's modernist sensibility. Hartley, a pioneering American modernist, drew from his experiences in Europe—particularly Berlin in the early 1920s—where he absorbed influences from German Expressionism and Post-Impressionism, infusing everyday subjects with emotional depth and abstraction. As a lithograph, this print showcases Hartley's experimentation with reproductive techniques during a transitional phase in his career. Lithography, invented in the late 18th century, allowed artists like Hartley to achieve rich tonal variations and painterly effects through greasy crayon drawings on stone, transferred to paper under pressure. This medium democratized art, making high-quality multiples accessible beyond original paintings. Produced amid Hartley's shift from symbolic portraits to more intimate still lifes, the work reflects the interwar era's fascination with domestic motifs amid global upheaval. Now in the National Gallery of Art's Reba and Dave Williams Collection, *Flowers in Goblet #2* invites visitors to appreciate Hartley's mastery in translating floral beauty into graphic power, bridging fine art and printmaking traditions.

About the Artist

Marsden Hartley · 1877–1943

Marsden Hartley (1877–1943) was one of the most significant and searching figures of American modernism, an artist whose restless travels and personal intensity drove him to synthesize European avant-garde currents with a deeply American sensibility rooted in landscape, loss, and spiritual longing. Born in Lewiston, Maine, he studied at the Cleveland School of Art and later at the National Academy...