Herman Brookman

American, 1891 - 1973

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Vibrant strokes of cranberry red, cobalt blue, butterscotch yellow, emerald green, tan, and parchment white create a view of densely spaced trees in this abstracted, nearly square painting. Thin, vertical tree trunks span the height of the composition, and are irregularly marked with horizontal strokes of topaz blue, earth brown, shell pink, or scarlet red. The spaces between the trunks are filled in almost entirely with diagonal, vertical, and a few horizontal strokes to suggest a dense canopy. Rows of short, vertical strokes in royal blue or violet purple create two diagonal bands across the top third of the painting. A break in the forest at the bottom center opens onto two small rectangles topped with strokes of lapis blue, perhaps representing houses in the distance.
Marsden Hartley, Maine Woods, 1908, oil on canvas, Gift of Bernard Brookman, 1991.71.1

Maine Woods

Marsden Hartley · 1908 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1991.71.1