Handsome Drinks
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
The meaning of the letters in this colorful still life is a mystery, one whose solution may have been intensely personal for Hartley. The letters, and the clean, flat shapes that simultaneously seem to be pasted to the picture plane and register as objects in illusionistic space, recall the Cubist collage aesthetic that Hartley embraced during his stays in Europe. Handsome Drinks is one of the first paintings the artist completed after World War I forced his reluctant return to the United States. It features a glass of green absinthe, a potent drink associated with European café life, a social milieu that Hartley had found extraordinarily stimulating.
Caption
Marsden Hartley (American, 1877–1943). Handsome Drinks, 1916. Oil on composition board, 24 x 20 in. (61 x 50.8 cm) Frame: 30 1/4 x 26 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. (76.8 x 67.9 x 3.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Milton Lowenthal, 72.3. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Handsome Drinks
Date
1916
Medium
Oil on composition board
Classification
Dimensions
24 x 20 in. (61 x 50.8 cm) Frame: 30 1/4 x 26 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. (76.8 x 67.9 x 3.8 cm)
Inscriptions
Inscribed verso upper left: "Handsome Drinks,/Handsome Drinks/Marsden Hartley"
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Milton Lowenthal
Accession Number
72.3
Frequent Art Questions
Is this painting by Marsden Hartley? What do the words mean?
Yes, the artist is Marsden Hartley! This work is called "Handsome Drinks." You have asked an excellent question. The letters the artist included remain mysterious to us. Scholars speculate that the letters represent something symbolic and personal to Hartley. Both the style of the still life and the objects he includes, like the glass of absinthe, allude to his time spent in Europe.
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