John Marin
American, 1870-1953
Cape Split, Maine
INV-4632
John Marin
American, 1870-19531941
Cape Split, Maine
John Marin American, 1870-1953 →watercolordrawings (visual works)
Date
1941
Medium
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
Dimensions
39.2 × 52.1 cm (15 7/16 × 20 9/16 in.); Mount: 55.3 × 73.2 cm (21 13/16 × 28 7/8 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Olivia Shaler Swan Memorial Collection
In this work, blue and pink lines hover above the horizon, indicating fair weather for both sailing and painting. Marin evoked the complexity of the surf with a wide range of paint applications: dry brushstrokes for the water’s texture; intervals of wet-into-wet; amorphous washes to suggest foreground rocks; pale blue tints over white paper for sea foam; and multiple shades of black, blue, and green to evoke depth and movement below the waves. He then used pencil to delineate the rock forms, applying watercolor over graphite and vice versa.
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