Storm Clouds, Maine was painted in 1900-07 and is one of the few works signed with Hartley's given name, Edmund. Marsden was his stepmother's surname, which he used from 1909 onward. He probably painted this autumn view of Speckled Mountain in Maine from nearby Royce Mountain. He believed the mountains of Maine held great power. Hartley found the place he had been searching for the woods and seashore of Maine.

Vocabulary Terms

Cubism--An early 20th Century style of art characterized by overlapping picture planes, multiple perspectives; analytic cubism looks at all views at once; synthetic cubism is basically two-dimensional.

expressionism--Generally, expressionism (with a lowercase "e") refers to any art that emphasizes strong emotions or feelings. Shortly before World War I, a group of artists in Germany set as their goal the depiction of emotional and psychological concerns of themselves and their times. Some of these German Expressionists (with an uppercase "E") used strong color contrasts, angular simplified forms, and heavy black outlines to express their anger and hostility; others explored color and abstraction to express spiritual or mystical ideas.

Fauvism--An art style characterized by the bold distortion of form and the use of strong, pure color.

Impressionism--A movement in painting in which the emphasis on light and color, loose brush strokes, ordinary subject matter; creates the "impression" of a moment in time. Dabs and strokes of color are used to depict the natural appearances of objects and reflected light.

Realism--A style of art that represent nature accurately as seen by the human eye.

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