Pocket Guide -> Media -> Oil on canvas with painted wood frame -> Berlin Ante War
Berlin Ante War
by Marsden Hartley · American, 1877 - 1943
| Creation Date: | 1914 |
| Media & Support: | Oil on canvas with painted wood frame |
| Dimensions: | 41 ¾ x 34 ½ inches |
| Credit: | Gift of Ferdinand Howald |
One of America’s pioneer Modernists, Marsden Hartley was living in Berlin when World War I broke out in August 1914. Hartley seems to have painted this work after his close friend Karl von Freyburg was killed in early October 1914. For Hartley, art was a personal spiritual quest, though he would not acknowledge or explain the presence of personal symbolism in his works. Ante-war means “prewar,” and the horseman in the clouds may be a heroic portrayal of the prewar von Freyburg. The frame was handmade by the artist.
