Circus Elephants

Prints and Drawings

1941

John Marin
American, 1870-1953

Among Marin’s favorite subjects in the 1930s and 1940s was the circus, a theme he worked on both in the city and at Cape Split. An avid circus visitor, he enjoyed the spectacle and sketching the animals. Marin loved the elephants most, responding to the dignity and grandeur of their movements. He began this watercolor by drawing the creatures and their surroundings with graphite and crayon. He then painted the forms with transparent watercolor, returning to add black crayon for the deepest lines. Painted, drawn, and subtracted diagonal marks conjure the effect of spotlights. The soft effect of wiping also contributes to the overall impression of dust hanging in the illuminated air, enhancing the artist’s evocation of heat, smells, and sounds.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: John Marin
Title: Circus Elephants
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 1941
Medium: Watercolor with scraping and wiping, and with opaque watercolor, graphite and black crayon, on medium-weight, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Inscriptions: Signed and dated lower right, in black crayon: "Marin 41" [formerly 42]
Dimensions: 48.9 × 63 cm (19 5/16 × 24 13/16 in.)
Credit Line: Alfred Stieglitz Collection and Robert A. Waller Fund
Reference Number: 1949.609
Copyright: © 2018 Estate of John Marin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Sheldon Reich, John Marin, Part II: Catalogue Raisonné (Tucson, Ariz., 1970), p. 714, no. 41.10 (ill).

New York, An American Place, “Pertaining to New York: Circus and Pink Ladies,” Mar. 21-Apr. 12, 1942, cat. 10.
Boston, Institute of Modern Art, “John Marin,” 1947, cat. 74 (ill.); also Washington, D.C., Phillips Collection, and Minneapolis, Walker Art Center.
Los Angeles, University of Callifornia, Los Angeles Art Galleries, “John Marin: Memorial Exhibition,” 1955-1956, cat. 58 (ill.); traveled.
London, Arts Council of Greeat Britain, “John Marin,” Sept. 22-Oct. 20, 1956, cat. 80 (ill.).
Tucson, Ariz., University of Arizona, Art Gallery, “John Marin, 1870-1953,” Feb. 9-Mar. 10, 1963, cat. 68.
Sarasota, John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, “The Circus in Art,” Jan. 20-Mar. 6, 1976.
Art Institute of Chicago, “John Marin’s Watercolors: A Medium for Modernism,” Jan. 19-Apr. 17, 2011, pp. 172-74, pl. 87; traveled to the High Museum, Atlanta, June 26-Sept. 11, 2011.

Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946), New York; Stieglitz Estate (Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986), executor); given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1949.

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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.

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