Headed for Boston
<p>By the time Marin painted this dramatic image of a schooner riding the currents from Stonington to Boston, he had become known for his keen sensitivity to the unique properties of Maine, especially the life of the sea. His passion for boats was celebrated and, along with his forceful and emotional handling of paint, this subject became an icon of his persona. Here Marin used his wide three-centimeter brush, working the watercolor so vigorously that bristles became lodged on the work’s surface. The distinctive silver shadow-box frame—designed by Stieglitz—sets the watercolor back in space and reflects the artist’s interest in balancing oppositional visual forces.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1923
- Dimensions
- 44.8 × 52.7 cm (17 11/16 × 20 3/4 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.
Full artist profile →More
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
- 1923
- Dimensions
- 44.8 × 52.7 cm (17 11/16 × 20 3/4 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1923-131281
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified
Explore
More Watercolor with blotting and touches of scraping, and with charcoal with erasing, on moderately thick (estimated), moderately textured, ivory wove paper (right and lower edges trimmed), perimeter mounted to wood-pulp board, faced with ivory paper gilt with silver leaf, in original frame works →All works by John Marin →