Small Point, Maine

Details

John Marin (1870-1953)
Small Point, Maine
signed and dated 'Marin 31' (lower right)
watercolor on paper with original painted mat and applied metallic border
sight, 18 ½ in. 24 in. (47 x 61 cm.); overall, 22 ½ x 28 in. (57.2 x 71.1 cm.)
Executed in 1931.

Provenance

The artist.
Estate of the above.
Marlborough Gallery, New York.
Private collection, New York, acquired from the above, 1969.
Private collection, Paris, France, by 1973.
Andrew Crispo Gallery, Inc., New York.
Sotheby's, New York, 3 December 1997, lot 131, sold by the above.
Acquired by the present owner from the above.

Literature

S. Reich, John Marin: A Stylistic Analysis and Catalogue Raisonné, vol. II, Tucson, Arizona, 1970, p. 638, no. 31.37, illustrated.
R. Doty, "The Articulation of American Abstraction," Arts Magazine, November 1973, p. 48, illustrated.
W.C. Agee, et al., The Scharf Collection: A History Revealed, New York, 2018, pp. 151, 179, pl. 82, illustrated.

Exhibited

Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; San Diego, California, Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, John Marin, November 1970-January 1971, no. 87.
New York, Andrew Crispo Gallery, Inc., Pioneers of American Abstraction, October 17-November 17, 1973, n.p., no. 80, illustrated.
New York, Andrew Crispo Gallery, Inc., Ten Americans: Masters of Watercolor, May 16-June 30, 1974, n.p., no. 112, illustrated.
Miami, Florida, Miami-Dade Community College, New World Center Campus, Frances Wolfson Art Gallery, The Spirit of Paper: Twentieth Century Americans, June 3-July 29, 1982, n.p., no. 28.
Southampton, New York, Parrish Art Museum, Painting Naturally: Fairfield Porter and His Influences, April 15-June 3, 1984, n.p.

Brought to you by

William Haydock

whaydock@christies.com 212-636-2140

Lot Essay

The present work retains its original applied and painted border. As Charles Pietraszewski and Christine Conniff-O'Shea write, "Marin's frames and mounts are highly prized, possessing an almost cultlike status." Discussing a similar framing device on Movement No. 23--The Sea and Pertaining Thereto (1927, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois), they describe, "Here the artist eschewed the gilded mount and applied a very thin raised silver strip around the edge of the watercolor, essentially creating another variation on his frame-within-a frame approach. In a letter to Stieglitz, he discussed this framing device: '[George] Of is at work on what I call my secondary line of defense or inner frames or strips...Figuring things out to the 32 of an inch is no joke but I want them to look right as I can make them--which of course takes time.'" ("Part of the Picture: The Power of the Frame in John Marin's Watercolors," John Marin's Watercolors: A Medium for Modernism, exhibition catalogue, Chicago, Illinois, 2010, pp. 59, 71)

More from American Art

View All