Marsden Hartley

 
Hartley spent the period from April to November 1929 living in the house he rented near the Château Noir in Aix-en-Provence. This third stay in Aix inspired some of the most joyous and beautiful paintings of Hartley's career. In the floral still lifes that he painted in Aix, Hartley began the process of shedding the severe, analytical approach he had been trying to master since the summer of 1926. He adopted a broader painting style and embraced color's capacity to lift up and invigorate the human spirit. Hartley was as enthusiastic now about juxtaposing bright pinks, yellows, reds, greens, purples, oranges, and blues in his compositions as he had been in 1910 when he first fell under the sway of Matisse. His resurgence of interest in color in his still lifes may even have stemmed from his response to the French artist's recent still lifes; for Hartley's work recalls their resonant tonality and partiality to pinks and reds.

The still lifes from Hartley's recent stay in Paris and Aix were prominently featured in the solo exhibition of his work that opened at An American Place in New York in December 1930. The critics celebrated the artist's use of rich, orchestrated color. In the American Art News issue of December 29, 1930. a critic remarked that the exhibition "shows this decoratively minded painter making a striking success of his high keyed studies of the various flora and fauna that go to make up the majority of present day still life canvases. He has been benefited by a Parisian stay, so that his colors take on a fresh radiance and his patterns a more refined and pertinent appearance.…It is a bright, buoyant exhibit of decorative painting done with a nice admixture of brains and training and taste."

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