Sustained Comedy - Marsden Hartley

A symbolic portrait by Marsden Hartley featuring a figure adorned with personal icons and religious imagery, rendered in a direct, expressive style.

Marsden Hartley painted Sustained Comedy in 1939, a period when his work shifted towards a more personal, symbolic vocabulary. The composition features a central male figure whose body acts as a canvas for various icons, including butterflies, a star, and a small framed depiction of a crucifixion. The figure is pierced by arrows, a visual reference to the iconography of Saint Sebastian, which Hartley frequently employed to explore themes of suffering and identity. The palette is dominated by deep blues and flesh tones, creating a stark contrast that draws the eye to the central figure.

Hartley spent much of his career travelling between America and Europe, absorbing influences from German Expressionism and the work of Albert Pinkham Ryder. By the late 1930s, he had returned to his native Maine, where his painting style became increasingly direct and heavy in its application of pigment. This work reflects his interest in the intersection of religious symbolism and personal mythology. The inclusion of the small, framed image on the chest suggests a narrative of internalised devotion or memory. The surrounding elements, such as the lightning bolt and the birds, add a layer of enigmatic storytelling that characterises much of his later output. The painting does not rely on traditional perspective, opting instead for a flat, iconic arrangement that emphasises the symbolic weight of each element. It is a work that invites close observation of its recurring motifs and the deliberate, almost primitive, handling of paint that Hartley favoured during this final phase of his career.