The Pine Tree, Small Point, Maine
<p>Marin was interested in the experience of seeing, and at times he used painted borders to help translate a particular effect of vision. In this watercolor, the central motif is boldly rendered in strong, bright colors, the complementary relationship of blue and yellow giving the impression of sharp focus. Around the perimeter of the scene, the artist painted with water to dilute and blend pigment, blotting and wiping away the paint to create a blurry border that suggests peripheral vision or even the view through the lens of a camera. This vivid impression of the Maine environment quite literally exemplifies Marin’s statement that “there is a veil in front of the Artist / he’s got to pierce that veil.”</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1926
- Dimensions
- 44.1 × 55.6 cm (17 3/8 × 21 15/16 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.
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
- 1926
- Dimensions
- 44.1 × 55.6 cm (17 3/8 × 21 15/16 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1926-131280
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified