Lesson 1 - LearningThroughMuseums

The artwork: The Last of New England the Beginning of New Mexico
The artist: Marsden Hartley (American, 1877–1943)
The topic: The Environment of the West
Relevant Information:
• Marsden Hartley grew up in the East and often painted pictures of America, including landscapes.
• The painting The Last of New England—the Beginning of New Mexico uses bold color and line to
communicate how Hartley feels about the southwestern landscape.
• Hartley loved the color and light that he found in New Mexico when he moved there from the East
in 1918. He wrote that he felt like “an American discovering America” and saw the Southwest as
unspoiled, beautiful, and rejuvenating.
• The painting does not show the landscape exactly as it is but is from Hartley’s imagination.
The greenery and tree stumps in the foreground represent the forests of the East leading into the
vibrant hills of New Mexico in the background, even though these two regions are separated by
thousands of miles in reality.
You will find additional useful information from the following sources:
Web sites
• The Art Institute of Chicago
Information about The Bronco Buster:
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/97916
• Information about The Last of New England—The Beginning of New Mexico:
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/65925
• American Art Collection:
http://www.artic.edu/artaccess/AA_American/index.html
• Window on the West: Chicago and the Art of the New Frontier, 1890–1940 (2003 exhibition):
http://www.artic.edu/aic/exhibitions/window/overview.html
Additional Web sites
• Frederic Remington Art Museum:
http://www.fredericremington.org/index.php
• Marsden Hartley: American Modern (2000 exhibition): http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/2aa/2aa10.htm
• Life on the Western Frontier:
http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/slatta/cowboys/essays/front_life2.htm
• The Great American West (40-minute documentary):
http://www.hulu.com/the-great-american-west
50 • Lesson 3: People and Environments of the American West