The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of February 8, 2023

Tree and Sea, Maine

1919

John Marin

(American, 1870–1953)

America, 20th century

Watercolor on thick wove paper

22.9 x 29.8 cm (9 x 11 3/4 in.)

Dudley P. Allen Fund 1937.514

© Estate of John Marin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

In 1915, Marin bought a small island off the coast of Small Point Harbor, Maine.

Description

By 1919, Marin was a summer regular in Maine where he continued to find inspiration for his experiments in watercolor. This composition focuses on an evergreen tree, which he often highlighted as a symbol of steadfastness amid a harsh and changing environment. Unusually realistic in terms of palette, Marin nevertheless played with the abstract shapes of the rising hill, horizon, and sea in this composition.

Provenance
1937
Estate of Charles T. Brooks
Citations
Reich, Sheldon. John Marin: A Stylistic Analysis and Catalogue Raisonné. 2 vols. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1970. II: 474, no. 19.43
Exhibition history

Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 11, 2022-January 8, 2023).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1937.514