Mont Sainte-Victoire 1927

Marsden Hartley made this painting, Mont Sainte-Victoire, with oil on board. Isn’t it amazing how he uses these short, choppy strokes of color? It’s like he’s building the mountain and the landscape right before our eyes. You can almost feel the energy of his hand as he’s laying down each mark. Look at the lower part of the canvas, the foreground. Hartley uses blues, greens, and purples, layering them in a way that creates a sense of depth and texture. The paint isn’t thick, but you can definitely see the individual brushstrokes, each one adding to the overall feel of the scene. The strokes all point in the same direction, it's like the mountain is giving everything below it a haircut! The whole thing reminds me a bit of Cézanne. They were both trying to capture the essence of a place. These paintings aren’t about perfect representation; they're about feeling and experience. And that’s what makes them so engaging.