The Green Sea – Movement – Stonington, Maine
<p>An early instance of Marin’s changing framing aesthetic can be seen in his handling of this watercolor, which was adhered to a gilded mount and then fitted in a spare gilded frame. This approach, which left plenty of space around the sheet, emphasizes the artwork’s materiality, an important concept for Marin. Unlike the white enamel frames he had favored throughout the previous decade, his gilded mounts and frames of the early 1920s were not intended to harmonize with his art. Rather, the use of gold was meant to be visually jarring, here drawing the viewer into the violent sea and proving the strength of the composition.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1921
- Dimensions
- 41.3 × 49.5 cm (16 5/16 × 19 1/2 in.); Mount: 57.8 × 64.5 cm (22 13/16 × 25 7/16 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- John Marin
Artist
Painting
John Marin was an American modernist painter and printmaker known for his dynamic watercolors and etchings of coastal landscapes, particularly Maine. Working primarily in watercolor from the 1910s onward, he developed a fractured, energetic visual language that synthesized Cubist fragmentation with direct observation of nature. His gestural brushwork and bold use of paper's white ground anticipated Abstract Expressionism while maintaining a strong sense of place and atmospheric condition. Marin spent decades based in Maine, where the rocky coastlines and maritime environment became the primary subject of his mature work.
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More by John Marin
Approaching Fog
1952 · Watercolor with blotting, wiping and traces of scraping, and with brush and black ink, graphite, fabricated charcoal, and touches of opaque watercolor on medium-weight, rough-textured, off-white wove paper (four edges trimmed)
Movement: Boats and Objects, Blue Gray Sea
1947 · Oil on canvas
Brooklyn Bridge - on the Bridge, No. 2
1944 · Etching
Cape Split, Maine
1941 · Watercolor with touches of blotting, and with graphite and black colored pencil, on lightweight (estimated), slightly textured, ivory wove paper (top, left and right edges trimmed), laid down on artists’ board faced with ivory wove paper, in original frame
Circus Elephants
1941 · Watercolor with scraping and wiping, and with opaque watercolor, graphite and black crayon, on medium-weight, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Movement: Sky and Grey Sea
1941 · Watercolor, charcoal, and pencil on paper
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- John Marin
- Year
- 1921
- Dimensions
- 41.3 × 49.5 cm (16 5/16 × 19 1/2 in.); Mount: 57.8 × 64.5 cm (22 13/16 × 25 7/16 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1921-013647
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified