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Lot Essay
Pertaining to Stonington Harbor, Maine, no. 5 is an outstanding example of John Marin's highly original contribution to modern American painting. Maine's seascapes and landscapes never ceased to amaze Marin, and they are the subjects of some of his most daring and original works. Timothy A. Eaton wrote "In Marin's transcendental pursuit to capture the energy of Maine's coastal environment, he created paintings that express the meaning beneath the force... Marin shows a distinctly American vision of the world." (in Hunter, John Marin: Expression and Meaning, Florida, 1998, p. 5)
In 1914, Marin and his family began to spend summers in Maine, "which was to become one of his favorite painting locales." (John Marin: Expression and Meaning, p. 14) Indeed, from his first experiences of Maine until his death in 1953, a period of over 40 years, Marin never tired of the rugged natural beauty that that New England state provided him. He wrote of his works, "seems to me that the true artist must perforce go from time to time to the elemental big forms -- Sky, Sea, Mountain, Plain -- and those things pertaining thereto, a sort of re-true himself up, to recharge the battery. For these big forms have everything. But to express these, you have to love these, to be part of these in sympathy." (as quoted in John Marin: Expression and Meaning , p. 14)
Though he vacationed in several towns in Maine, it was increasingly the work he did in and around Stonington Harbor that began to define his body of work. He wrote of Stonington "this place of mine, a village, where clustered about you can see if you look dream houses of a purity of whiteness, of a loveliness of proportion, of a sparingness of sensitive detail, rising up out of the greenest of grass sward." (as quoted in Ruth E. Fine, John Marin, Washington, D.C., 1990, p. 180) What captured him most about Stonington was the harbor's boats. In Pertaining to Stonington Harbor, Maine, no. 5, he brings together town, boats, and harbor, "exploring ways of schematizing trees, surf, and other components of the landscape [and] the activation of pictorial space." (R.E. Fine, John Marin, p. 189)
In 1930, Paul Rosenfeld "commented quite aptly on the richness of [Marin's] technique: '[his] painting is full of daring transitions. The gamuts frequently progress in wild, quick leaps; color jumping boldly to its subtle complement. It passes with delightful precipitousness from one texture to another. It passes from shaggy surfaces spattered on the paper to satiny rivulets and streams; from sensations of roundness to sensations of flatness; from streaks ridged like minute mountain ranges to streaks smooth as pond-water on summer nights. The relatively large areas of white paper left unmarked add to the instantaneousness and heterogeneity of the color relations. Marin actually scrubs on his paint in scudding rivulets, airy cascades and dithering flashes of running color, plotting the curve of quickest motion'." (as quoted in R.E. Fine, John Marin, p. 197)
In 1914, Marin and his family began to spend summers in Maine, "which was to become one of his favorite painting locales." (John Marin: Expression and Meaning, p. 14) Indeed, from his first experiences of Maine until his death in 1953, a period of over 40 years, Marin never tired of the rugged natural beauty that that New England state provided him. He wrote of his works, "seems to me that the true artist must perforce go from time to time to the elemental big forms -- Sky, Sea, Mountain, Plain -- and those things pertaining thereto, a sort of re-true himself up, to recharge the battery. For these big forms have everything. But to express these, you have to love these, to be part of these in sympathy." (as quoted in John Marin: Expression and Meaning , p. 14)
Though he vacationed in several towns in Maine, it was increasingly the work he did in and around Stonington Harbor that began to define his body of work. He wrote of Stonington "this place of mine, a village, where clustered about you can see if you look dream houses of a purity of whiteness, of a loveliness of proportion, of a sparingness of sensitive detail, rising up out of the greenest of grass sward." (as quoted in Ruth E. Fine, John Marin, Washington, D.C., 1990, p. 180) What captured him most about Stonington was the harbor's boats. In Pertaining to Stonington Harbor, Maine, no. 5, he brings together town, boats, and harbor, "exploring ways of schematizing trees, surf, and other components of the landscape [and] the activation of pictorial space." (R.E. Fine, John Marin, p. 189)
In 1930, Paul Rosenfeld "commented quite aptly on the richness of [Marin's] technique: '[his] painting is full of daring transitions. The gamuts frequently progress in wild, quick leaps; color jumping boldly to its subtle complement. It passes with delightful precipitousness from one texture to another. It passes from shaggy surfaces spattered on the paper to satiny rivulets and streams; from sensations of roundness to sensations of flatness; from streaks ridged like minute mountain ranges to streaks smooth as pond-water on summer nights. The relatively large areas of white paper left unmarked add to the instantaneousness and heterogeneity of the color relations. Marin actually scrubs on his paint in scudding rivulets, airy cascades and dithering flashes of running color, plotting the curve of quickest motion'." (as quoted in R.E. Fine, John Marin, p. 197)