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April 14th, 2008

Maine Series
AC 1954.12
John Marin, American, 1870-1953
Watercolor on white paper
Museum Purchase, 1925


The abbreviated forms, directional lines, and emphasis on the flat picture plane in Marin’s well-known paintings of the Maine coast also typify his iconic urban landscapes of New York City. Marin’s abstract aesthetic and trademark sense of freedom earned him a degree of fame and critical praise in elite avant-garde circles of which few early American modernists could boast.

To create the present work, the artist distilled natural structures into geometric shapes, used bold black lines of charcoal to outline forms and suggest movement, and left large unpainted areas of white paper to further enliven the saturated hues and varied paint textures. He applied smooth wet paint against the shoreline, dragged dry pigment across the sky, and scribbled color in the sea and pine trees. Such varied, unblended brushwork defies stereotypes of subtle modulations offering the primary means to success in watercolor.

Written by Stephanie Leung, Class of 2009