JOHN MARIN (1870-1953)
JOHN MARIN (1870-1953)
JOHN MARIN (1870-1953)
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PROPERTY OF AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTOR
JOHN MARIN (1870-1953)

Chocorua Along with Dead Trees, White Mountains, N.H.

Details
JOHN MARIN (1870-1953)
Marin, J.
Chocorua Along with Dead Trees, White Mountains, N.H.
signed and dated ‘Marin 26’ (lower right)—inscribed with title and dated again (on the reverse)
watercolor and charcoal on paper
16 3/8 x 21 ¾ in. (41.6 x 55.2 cm.)
Executed in 1926.
Provenance
The artist.
Estate of the above.
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1993.
Literature
S. Reich, John Marin: A Stylistic Analysis and Catalogue Raisonné, vol. II, Tucson, Arizona, 1970, p. 562, no. 26.5.
Exhibited
New York, Kennedy Galleries, Inc., Trees as Seen Through the Eyes of John Marin and Charles Burchfield, May 1991, no. 12, cover illustration.
Sale room notice
This lot is now offered without reserve.

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Lot Essay

The present watercolor belongs to a group of works John Marin painted in 1926 depicting the White Mountains of New Hampshire, which he visited that summer on his way to Stonington, Maine. In a letter to Alfred Stieglitz, he wrote: "Some of the scenery, lakes and mountains in Vermont and New Hampshire, I took to like a duck to water." (as quoted in S. Reich, John Marin: A Stylistic Analysis and Catalogue Raisonné, vol. I, Tucson, Arizona, 1970, p. 167)

Chocorua Along with Dead Trees, White Mountains, N.H. is a striking example of Marin's masterful approach to watercolor, characterized by his energetic brushwork and bold contrasts of color. Here, Marin interrupts the elegant facade of the mountains with a line of trees placed in the foreground. The simplified forms are emphasized by his bright colors and strong outlines, heightened by the spontaneous nature of the watercolor medium. According to Kristi Dahm, Marin's "deliberate choice to work primarily in the medium [of watercolor] points to his independent nature and suggests both his preference for unrestricted experimentation and his willingness to embrace unpredictable outcomes." (John Marin's Watercolors: A Medium for Modernism, exhibition catalogue, Chicago, Illinois, 2010, p. 44)

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