About the Object
Lifeguard, drawn on a paperboard, is a figure study of a lifeguard at Old Orchard Beach, Maine. The figure is seated with his legs crossed, body facing the viewer, while he looks off to the left. He fills the composition: Hartley emphasized his arms and torso, his legs seemingly crammed at the bottom of the page, his foot and the top of his head both cut off by the edge of the paperboard.
Additional Information
Hartley first visited Old Orchard Beach, located on the coast between Portland and Kennebunkport, in 1928. He returned in the 1940s, producing drawings of bathers including Four Bathers at Old Orchard Beach, 1940, in the Bates College Museum of Art, which harken back to the figure studies he produced in Berlin in the 1920s and suggest comparisons to Cézanne’s bathers.
The Artist;
Estate of The Artist, Inv. #268A;
[With William Macbeth Gallery, New York, NY, not sold; returned to Estate];
[With Paul Rosenberg & Co., New York, NY, consigned by above; not sold; returned to Estate];
[Eva Lee Gallery, Great Neck, NY, consigned by the Estate];
Mrs. Therese Rosinsky, Great Neck, NY, c. 1961;
Alan Rosinsky, New York, by descent from above until 2017;
[Christie’s, American Art Online, May 17-24, 2017];
[Owings Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, purchased from above sale, 2017];
Jan T. and Marica Vilcek Collection, New York, NY, 2017-2023;
Greenvale, NY. C.W. Post College Art Gallery, Long Island University. Marsden Hartley Retrospective, November 6-December 14, 1977.
Lewiston, ME. Bates College Museum of Art. Marsden Hartley: Adventurer in the Arts. September 20-November 19, 2021, pp. 71, 111, ill. p. 73.
Santa Fe, NM. New Mexico Museum of Art. Marsden Hartley: Adventurer in the Arts. April 5-July 25, 2025.
G. Alan Chidsey. Volume of Photographs of Paintings, Pastels, Drawings and Lithographs by Marsden Hartley, compiled by the Hartley Estate, 1944–1960, G. Alan Chidsey Papers, N69-115, frames 27-403. Washington, D.C. Archives of American Art.
McCausland, Elizabeth. Elizabeth McCausland papers, 1838-1995, bulk 1920-1960, Series 6: Marsden Hartley, 1900-1964 (Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC), box 15, folder 58, frame 5.
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