[Figure Study for Canuck Yankee Lumberjack at Old Orchard, Maine, 1940]
1940
Marsden Hartley,
American,
(Lewiston, ME, January 4, 1877 - September 2, 1943, Ellsworth, ME)
Notes
In this drawing and the next (1955.1.52), Hartley presents a muscular young man, perhaps a lifeguard, given the rope and buoy on the beach beside him. His head and arms abruptly disappear beyond the edge of the paper, in order to display the man's physique: body-builder pectorals tapering to his trim waist with well-developed thighs and claves. The man's stance—legs bowed outward at the knees, then back together at the feet, as well as the buoy and rope—identify this as a preliminary study for Canuck Yankee Lumberjack at Old Orchard, Maine, 1940 (Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC), one of the paintings Hartley quickly developed in the months following his August visit to Old Orchard Beach.