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Home > Art > Roses for Seagulls that Lost Their Way

Roses for Seagulls that Lost Their Way

A bouquet of round white roses set against a red background.
Artist

Marsden Hartley

Date

1935-36

Medium

Oil on board

Dimensions

16 x 12 in. (40.6 x 30.5 cm)

Artist's Country of Birth

United States

Collecting Area

American Modernism

Credit Line

The Jan T. and Marica Vilcek Collection, Promised gift to The Vilcek Foundation

Accession Number

2013.02.01

Copyright

© The Vilcek Foundation

Tags
flower painting still life
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A bouquet of round white roses set against a red background.

About the Object

Against a brilliant red background an abstracted bouquet of 16 white roses are bound together with a white ribbon that may represent the body of a seagull. Hartley has flattened the space and removed any sense of place, focusing on a bold, pared-down palette.

 

Additional Information

Escaping bronchitis and a difficult winter in New York, Hartley traveled to Bermuda in the summer of 1935, his second trip to the island. He began this painting there and took it with him when he left for Nova Scotia in September.

The Artist;
[Paul Rosenberg & Co., New York, July 1944];
Private Collection, New York;
Susan Vanderwoude Collection, by 1981;
[Carol Saper Fine Art Ltd., New York, NY];
[Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts, New York, NY, 2002];
Slong & Midas Properties, Inc., New York, NY, 2003;
[Christie’s New York, May 20, 2010, lot 15];
[Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts, New York, NY];

New York. An American Place. Marsden Hartley. March 22-April 14, 1936, no. 8 (as Roses for seagulls lost at sea).

Southampton. Parrish Art Museum. An American Place. May 24-July 19, 1981 (as Roses for Seagulls that Lost Their Way), ill. cat. no. 23.

New York. Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc. The Heart of the Matter: The Still Lifes of Marsden Hartley. May 6-June 27, 2003, pp. 67, 161, ill. p. 119, pl. 39.

New York. Vanderwoude Tananbaum Gallery. January 13-February 27, 1988.

New York. Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts booth. Art20. November 2004.

Palm Beach. Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts booth. Palm Beach Art Fair. February 3-12, 2006, pp. 8-9, ill. p. 9.

New York. Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts booth. Art20. November 2008.

New York. Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts booth. Art and Antiques Fair. May 2013.

Lewiston, ME. Bates College Museum of Art. Marsden Hartley: Adventurer in the Arts. September 20-November 19, 2021.

Elizabeth McCausland Papers, Marsden Hartley Catalogue Raisonné: Still Life – Oils, [circa 1944-1964]. Box 15, Folder 23, Frames 25-26. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, (as Roses for Seagulls that Lost Their Way).

Johnson, Ken. “A Century of Mad Ideas, Tamed and Housebroken,” New York Times, November 19, 2004, ill. The Magazine Antiques, December 2005, 168, no. 6, p. 1.

Brockett, Erik. “American Still Life: Modernist Influences in the Twentieth Century,” Antiques and Fine Art, Summer 2007, pp. 134-41, cover illustration (as Roses for Seagulls that Lost Their Way).

Rosenberg, Karen. “A Small Show Where Some Sleuthing Is in Order,” New York Times, November 7, 2008.

Pollock, Lindsay. “New York Art Dealer Goldberg to Quit, Sell $10 Million of Art,” Bloomberg, March 4, 2010.

Grant, Daniel. “Goldberg Announces Retirement, Plans to Auction Art at Christie’s,” ARTnews, March 9, 2010.

Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts: The Collection. Christie’s New York. Exceptional American Paintings, Impressionist and Modern Art, and 20th Century Decorative Arts. May 20, 2010, lot 15.

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flower painting still life
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