Marsden Hartley, Fig Tree, 1926-27

a painting of a leafless gray fig tree against a dark sky and red and dark ground, the branches curving all over the place, crossing themselves, like a brice marden painting from the 1990s, except it was painted in 1926 by marsden hartley. image is from the 2003 retrospective of hartley's work at the wadworth atheneum in hartford ct
janky screenshot of Marsden Hartley, Fig Tree, 1926-27, 24 x 20 1/2 in., as reproduced in the exhibition catalogue for the Wadsworth Atheneum’s 2003 Hartley retrospective.

Marsden Hartley moved from Vence to Aix-en-Provence in 1926, at the invitation of the Kuntzes, and set to working in Cezanne’s old studio.

According to the chronology in Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser’s 2003 retrospective, which originated at the Wadsworth Atheneum, this is when Hartley began working on Fig Tree.

The Google Books preview does not include the text about Fig Tree, but earlier texts seem to date it earlier, to 1924, when Hartley was in New Mexico. I will need to find out more about this buck wild painting, which seems to have nothing to do with channeling Cezanne.