Marine Landscape relates closely to Gloucester Harbor, 1938 (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston) one of Davis's most important works of the 1930s, as well as Art of the People Get Pink Slips, 1937 (private collection), the artist's only collage after 1921. The original inspiration for these works was Drawing from Notebook No. 16, 1933 (Collection of Earl Davis) which depicts Smith's Cove in East Gloucester, and shows the image of boats and ladder in the background, box-type objects in the foreground, and dash pattern for water.