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Street Scene

A work made of watercolor with rewetting and blotting, and graphite, on lightweight, slightly textured, off-white wove paper, laid down on ivory wove card.
© 2018 Estate of John Marin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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  • A work made of watercolor with rewetting and blotting, and graphite, on lightweight, slightly textured, off-white wove paper, laid down on ivory wove card.

Date:

1910

Artist:

John Marin
American, 1870-1953

About this artwork

Looking west down Wall Street, Trinity Church’s purple facade and spire appear beyond the columned Federal Hall. Marin made these landmarks identifiable, adding color over his graphite sketch with broad but carefully applied strokes. He used a heavy blue pigment that settled into the low points of the paper’s surface and lightly blotted the wet blue wash at upper left, removing just enough color from the high points to accentuate the grainy pattern left behind. At lower left, he used more water, rewetting and then blotting his colors to approximate the obliterating effect of steam emanating from street vents. Using a soft, dark pencil, he outlined the structures and delineated architectural details, adding heads and shoulders to blue dabs of wash to transform them into figures.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

John Marin

Title

Street Scene

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 1910

Medium

Watercolor with rewetting and blotting, and graphite, on lightweight, slightly textured, off-white wove paper, laid down on ivory wove card

Inscriptions

Signed lower right on primary supprt, in graphite, “Marin”; inscribed lower right on secondary support, in graphite, “14” [encircled]

Dimensions

25.9 × 19.9 cm (10 1/4 × 7 7/8 in.); Secondary support: 33.7 × 27 cm (13 5/16 × 10 11/16 in.)

Credit Line

Alfred Stieglitz Collection

Reference Number

1956.369

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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