The Aero
c. 1914
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 100.3 x 81.2 cm (39 1/2 x 31 15/16 in.) framed: 106.7 x 87.7 cm (42 x 34 1/2 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CMC
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Andrew W. Mellon Fund
Accession Number
1970.31.1
Art Historical Context
Marsden Hartley's *The Aero* (c. 1914), an oil on canvas measuring nearly 100 x 81 cm, captures artist's fascination with modernity at the dawn of World War I. an American painter living in Berlin during this turbulent time, Hartley immersed himself in Europe's avant-garde scene, drawing from German Expressionism and the dynamic energy of Futurism. This work belongs to his bold series of paintings evoking military motifs, where symbols of power and technology—like aircraft—emerge through abstracted forms and vibrant hues. The painting's title nods to early aviation, a symbol of rapid technolo...
About the Artist
Marsden Hartley
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...