1930-39 / The Atelier

“Hofmann’s artistic efforts, in Europe and during his first years in America, concentrated primarily on ink sketches of figures and landscapes. Understandably, teaching and the running of his schools occupied the lion’s share of his time and energy. Further, wartime privations and his itinerant lifestyle made it difficult for Hofmann to advance a focused painting practice. However, while teaching in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1934, Hofmann began to paint again, primarily landscapes and coastal scenes. [...] Hofmann used this topography, much as he had used still-life arrangements, as a starting point from which to navigate through a range of pictorial expressions and explorations. Like his studio interiors, Hofmann’s immediate environment in Provincetown—the surrounding landscape, and, in particular, his studio on Miller Hill— represented the physical and intellectual place of inspiration and creation: his “atelier.”