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Personal life and relationships
Hartley developed his painting abilities by observing Cubists in Paris and Berlin.

In 1912 Hartley visited Europe for the first time.

In April of 1913 Hartley relocated to Berlin, the capital of the German Empire. Hartley lived in Berlin until December of 1915.

In a letter to Alfred Stieglitz, Hartley explains his disenchantment of living abroad in Paris. A single year has passed since he began living overseas. "Like every other human being I have longings which through tricks of circumstances have been left unsatisfied... and the pain grows stronger instead of less and it leaves one nothing but the role of spectator in life watching life go by-having no part of it but that of spectator." Hartley wanted to live within the noiseless countryside and an invigorating city.

After receiving negative criticism for his cubist inspired work Hartley returned to painting landscapes. The criticism was spawned by such works as Portrait of a German Officer which featured German and Nazi symbols after World War I. He wrote to Alfred Stieglitz that the landscapes he was painting "for the first time in my life [they are] almost without me in them." Hartley wanted to distance his personal line of thinking from his work.

Later years


Following World War I Hartley was obligated to return to the United States. Upon his return Hartley painted Handsome Drinks. The drinkware calls back to the gatherings hosted by Gertrude Stein, where Hartley met Pablo Picasso, and Robert Delaunay.

Towards the end of his life Hartley fell in with Alty Mason, a young fisherman. The relationship ended with the passing of Mason. He along with several relatives drowned at sea.

Hartley is bashful when it came to his homosexuality, often redirecting attention towards other aspects of his work. Works such as Portrait of a German Officer, and Handsome Drinks are coded. The compositions honor lovers, friends, and inspirational sources. Hartley no longer felt unease at what people thought of his work once he reached his sixties. Scenes became more intimate from locker rooms to muscular hairy-chested men in what appear to be Hotpants. There was no need to decipher the homoerotic undertones. As Hartley's German Officer paintings were misread as being pro-German, these new paintings were misinterpreted as being pro-American.

Aryanism
Hartley returned to the U.S. from Berlin as a German sympathizer following World War I. Hartley created paintings with much German iconography. The homoerotic tones were overlooked as critics focused on the German point of view. Hartley argued with a lie that there was "no hidden symbolism whatsoever."

Portrait of a German Officer (1914)
Unlike contemporaries that emitted an intense sexuality to the human form, Hartley would keep out of sight his homosexuality. In a personal memoir that was not finished, Hartley wrote "I began somehow to have curiosity about art at the time when sex consciousness is fully developed and as I did not incline to concrete escapades. I of course inclined to abstract ones, and the collecting of objects which is a sex expression took the upper hand." Hartley's use of object abstraction became the motif for his paintings that commemorate his "love object," Karl von Freybur. Within his paintings, the way Hartley conveyed his emotions regarding his friends traits was through everyday items. In this painting the Iron Cross, and German flag are attributes to Karl von Freybur, along with the yellow '24', the age he was when he passed away. Freybur and Hartley were not lovers. In Portrait of a German Officer Hartley reveals the private thoughts that he felt ashamed for loving another man.