Hartl, Leon Joseph (1889-1973)

Born in Paris, Hartl immigrated to the US in 1912 and became a citizen ten years later. His professional background had been with aniline dyes, working with ostrich and other rare feathers for milliners and couturiers. In 1922, he entered into a partnership with Marcel Duchamp creating a fabric and feather-dyeing shop that went bankrupt six months later. Hartl always held jobs out of necessity, painting his landscapes and still-lifes on Sundays, but was widely respected for his art. After viewing a 1924 show at Minneapolis Institute of Arts, one critic wrote that “The care with which he works out his subject is the touchstone which transforms a quiet scene into something broadly tender, beautiful in texture and tone” (Allen). Another described his still lifes as “lovely still-life arrangements of flowers, arranged on pale colored clothes, preferably pinks and grey blues. The bouquets have the simplicity of statement that a child’s concept of a bouquet would have with the difference that his work is neither accidental or immature” (Brooklyn Daily Eagle 28 Jan. 1934: 12). He exhibited at the New Gallery (1923), Art Institute of Chicago, Carnegie Institute, Corcoran, Museum of Modern Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Salons of America, Society of Independent Artists, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Hartl’s reputation usually was framed within the problematic concept of primitivism, like his contemporary Henri Rousseau; this was based upon his visual style but perhaps also due to his refreshingly down-to-earth view of painting. At a 1970 Teamsters Union show featuring the work of amateurs, the 81-year-old Hartl was quoted as saying “It’s very important for working people to develop a spiritual side” (New York Daily News 21 June 1970: 22). 4 works at Whitney Museum of American Art. 5 works at Asheville Art Museum. 7 works at Sheldon Museum of Art. 1 work at The Phillips Collection. His papers are at Syracuse University.

Source consulted: Burt Allen, “ ‘Personality’ is Slogan of French Artists Whose Work is Being Shown at Institute,” Minneapolis Star Tribune 30 Mar. 1924: 6.

Works in the New Deal Collection at GVCA by Leon Hartl:

Featured
Field Flowers
Field Flowers

The setting of this composition blurs the genres of En plein air landscapes and still lifes; there is no "background" to situate the basket of flowers in space, but the grass underneath them departs from carefully artificial indoor settings. A few buttercups growing in the grass echo those already collected for Hartl's basket. Hovering in space, the stems sometimes are so delicate that their blooms appear to be floating.

Fruit and Flowers
Fruit and Flowers

More than a dozen species of fruit and flowers are mounded on a bed of grass. The painting's upper half, a skillfully mottled background, is crucial for establishing the space necessary to make sense of the lower half--without it, those objects flatten into a wallpaper. Stalks of wheat and the greenery of flowers likewise sketch out spatial coordinates within which the brightly colored icons acquire mass.

Harvest Still Life
Harvest Still Life

Nature's bounty is gathered into a late-summer array: grapes, pears, peaches, a plum and a melon; behind them, heads of wheat and various flowers. It is not a haphazard grouping, given the wheat stalks poking out from green grass; the effect is closer to that of a flower arrangement. At the intersection of nature and artifice stands a gourd-shaped pitcher, worked metal emulating the shape of indigenous dried gourds used for a similar purpose.

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