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Blue Sea (recto); Sheet of Sketches (verso)

A work made of watercolor with fabricated charcoal on (recto), and watercolor and charcoal wash with rewetting, blotting, and wiping with touches of grphite over charcoal (verso), on thick, rough-textured, off-white wove paper (top and right edges trimmed).
© 2018 Estate of John Marin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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  • A work made of watercolor with fabricated charcoal on (recto), and watercolor and charcoal wash with rewetting, blotting, and wiping with touches of grphite over charcoal (verso), on thick, rough-textured, off-white wove paper (top and right edges trimmed).

Date:

1923

Artist:

John Marin
American, 1870-1953

About this artwork

In this watercolor from the summer of 1923, Marin looked down over steep ledges studded with rock pine toward the harbor and islands below. He painted with overlapping transparent washes, employing little to no reworking, rewetting, or blotting. The artist used clear water, floating it into adjacent washes along the perimeter to achieve a hazy frame. Strikingly, he superimposed a structure of emphatic horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines painted with a wide brush and blue watercolor. The effect is fencelike, suggesting that Marin might have been painting on a railed porch or the top level of a dock leading down to the water.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

John Marin

Title

Blue Sea (recto); Sheet of Sketches (verso)

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1923

Medium

Watercolor with fabricated charcoal on (recto), and watercolor and charcoal wash with rewetting, blotting, and wiping with touches of grphite over charcoal (verso), on thick, rough-textured, off-white wove paper (top and right edges trimmed)

Dimensions

35.4 × 43.7 cm (13 15/16 × 17 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Alfred Stieglitz Collection

Reference Number

1949.563

Copyright

© 2018 Estate of John Marin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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