The Last of New England—The Beginning of New Mexico

1918–19

Marsden Hartley (American, 1877–1943)

In this painting, Marsden Hartley depicted an imagined scene in which the fallen trees of a New England forest in the foreground transition to the golden hills of New Mexico beyond. Weary of the East Coast, the artist spent 18 months in the Southwest in 1918–19, believing that he could find rejuvenation in nature. Here, thick black lines define the Southwestern landscape, which he saw as alive with expressive potential. He wrote to Alfred Stieglitz, “I like the country very well, for it is big and clean and true, and there is nothing dirty standing between one and the sunlight, as there is in the east.” Like many artists who lived in New England at this time, he pictured the Southwest as uninhabited and unspoiled, overlooking the centuries of civilizations in the region.

Status: On View, Gallery 265
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Marsden Hartley
Title: The Last of New England—The Beginning of New Mexico
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: c. 1918–1919
Medium: Oil on paperboard
Dimensions: 61 × 76.3 cm (24 × 30 in.)
Credit Line: Alfred Stieglitz Collection
Reference Number: 1949.546
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/65925/manifest.json

Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), 211.
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955 (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), cat. 77. 21.
Yang Zhigang, ed., Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865–1945, exh. cat. (Shanghai: Shanghai Book and Painting Press, 2018), cat. 10.
Lærke Rydal Jørgensen and Mathias Ussing Seeberg, eds., Marsden Hartley: The Earth is All I Know of Wonder, exh. cat. (Humlebaek: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2019), cat. 41 (ill.).

Shanghai Museum, Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865–1945, Sept. 28, 2018–Jan. 6, 2019, cat. 10.
Humlebæk, Denmark, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Marsden Hartley: The Earth is All I Know of Wonder, Sept. 19, 2019–Jan. 19, 2020, cat. 41.

Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946), New York; Stieglitz Estate (Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986), executor), 1946; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1949.

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The Last of New England—The Beginning of New Mexico

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.