John Marin Art
American, 1872-1953
John Marin was born in Rutherford, New Jersey in 1870. His father was a public accountant; his mother died nine days after his birth. He was taken to his maternal grandparents with whom he lived in Weehawken, New Jersey. His grandparents, with their son and two daughters were the only parents Marin was to know; it has been suggested that his father seems to have ignored him. As a child of seven or eight Marin began to sketch and when he was a teenager he had completed his earliest watercolors. His education in the schools of New Jersey was interspersed with summers of hunting, fishing and sketching; he traveled in the Catskills, and as far away as Wisconsin and Minnesota. But formal training was almost incidental to his development as an artist.
He is to America what Paul Cezanne was to France - an innovator who helped to oppose the influence of the narrative painters, the illustrators who were more interested in subject than form, in surface than substance. Marin brought to his work a combination of values which, at the turn of the century, was unique in this country: an aliveness of touch, colors that have both sparkle and solidity, and forms that are vibrant with an energy characteristic of our age.
Marin established himself as a practicing architect. In the early 1890s, he worked for four architects and by 1893 had designed six houses in Union Hill, New Jersey. At the age of twenty-eight, he decided to become a professional artist and studied briefly at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and the Art Students League in New York City.
As a watercolorist he had no equal. He used this fluid, spontaneous medium to abstract from objects - skyscrapers, boats, mountains and seas - a simplified anatomy of color and form and to define the pulsation of stresses and movements in the relationship of objects. It was a great disappointment, all his life, that his oil paintings did not achieve the popularity that his watercolors did.
From 1905 to 1910 he worked in Europe, where he was influenced by Whistler's watercolors. It was Alfred Stieglitz, Marin's lifetime friend and dealer, whose firm faith in his genius made his position in the art world possible. He developed a distinctive style that he used most characteristically in powerful watercolors of the Maine coast. During the 1920s he provided the dominant force in the movement away from naturalistic representation towards an art of expressive semi-abstraction.
He married Marie Jane Hughes after he returned to New York. They had one son, who grew up to run his father's considerable affairs. Marin continued to work at the same steady fast pace as long as he lived. Since 1908 he had produced 1700 paintings, an average of forty a year. He had made the frames for them as well. At the age of seventy-nine, he began to taper off from the days when he painted one hundred watercolors in a summer. He died in 1953.to
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Downtown, The El
By John Marin
Located in New York, NY
John Marin (1870-1953), Downtown, The El, etching, 1921, signed in pencil lower left (also signed and dated in the plate). Reference: Zigrosser 134, only state. Published initially by Alfred Stieglitz and then included as part of the Folio of American Etchings by the magazine The New Republic in 1924, in an edition of unknown size but probably above 500. In very good condition, the full sheet, on Van Gelder wove paper, 6 3/4 x 8 3/4, the sheet 11 x 13 3/4 inches.
Provenance: Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, New York.
A fine bright impression.
Initially the New Republic Set, sometimes known as Six American Etchings, contained Marin’s Brooklyn Bridge No. 6 (Swaying) (Zigrosser 112). But after a small number of sets were completed, Downtown the El was substituted for Zigrosser 112 (and so the number of Downtown The Els in the set would have been a bit fewer than the others in the set). Zigrosser, who apparently had not seen a complete set at the time he created the catalogue raisonne, conjectured that the substitution might have been because the original plate was damaged. But since the printer, Peter Platt, was the most renowned artist’s printer of his time, and worked alone, it is unlikely that he would have damaged the plate; a more likely possibility is that he switched to a print that was more comparable in size to the others in the set (The Brooklyn Bridge print...
Category
1920s Futurist John Marin Art
Materials
Etching
Brooklyn Bridge NYC American Scene Ashcan 20th Century Social Realism Modern
By John Marin
Located in New York, NY
Brooklyn Bridge NYC American Scene Ashcan 20th Century Social Realism Modern
John Marin (1870-1953)
Brooklyn Bridge
7 1/2 x 9 7/8 inches
Graphite on paper
Signed lower right, c. 1...
Category
1920s American Modern John Marin Art
Materials
Paper, Graphite
Maples in Autumn Foliage
By John Marin
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
John Marin’s long and prolific career is best marked by his fervent love of painting and abiding belief that art must relate to lived experiences. His best work strikes a delicate ba...
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1940s American Modern John Marin Art
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Paper, Watercolor
Brooklyn Bridge No. 6 (Swaying)
By John Marin
Located in New York, NY
John Marin (1870-1953), Brooklyn Bridge No. 6 (Swaying), 1913, Etching.
Z112. Edition c. 12 (Steiglitz); 1924, unknown but small (New Republic). Signed in pencil. Signed and dated...
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1910s Cubist John Marin Art
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St. Germain-Des-Pres, Paris
By John Marin
Located in New York, NY
John Marin (1870-1953), St. Germain-Des-Pres, Paris, etching, 1906. Signed in pencil lower right and titled lower left [also signed and dated in the plate]. Zigrosser 47, only state,...
Category
Early 1900s American Impressionist John Marin Art
Materials
Etching
New York Street Movement and Figure - Architecture
By John Marin
Located in Miami, FL
This work by John Marin depicts an image of lower Manhattan which was Marin's more iconic subject matter. The work has a stellar provenance as well.
Provenance:
Kennedy Galleries
Richard York Gallery
ACA Galleries...
Category
1920s American Modern John Marin Art
Materials
Crayon
Meaux Cathedral II
By John Marin
Located in Middletown, NY
Paris: Gazette de Beaux Arts, 1907. Etching with aquatint on cream wove paper, 8 7/8 x 11 1/2 inches (225 x 292 mm), narrow lefthand margin, with a full margin with a deckle edge on ...
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Early 20th Century English School John Marin Art
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Study for Mid-Manhattan II
By John Marin
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Study for Mid-Manhattan II
Oil and graphite on paper, mounted to board, 1932
Signed by the artist in pencil lower right
Sight size: 8 1/2 x 7 inches
One of a series of studies for th...
Category
1930s American Modern John Marin Art
Materials
Oil
John Marin Etching, 1921 - “Downtown, the El”
By John Marin
Located in Phoenix, AZ
Beautiful etching by John Marin (1870-1953) created 1921.
Title: Downtown, The El (From the New Republic Set)
Medium: Etching
Size: 6 7/8 x 8 5/8. Sheet: 10 3/4 x 14. Mat: 16 x 17 3...
Category
1920s John Marin Art
Materials
Paper
CANAL BRIDGE AMSTERDAM
By John Marin
Located in Santa Monica, CA
JOHN MARIN (1872 -1953)
CANAL BRIDGE AMSTERDAM, 1906 (Zigrosser 13 i/ii)
Etching, drypoint and plate tone. A PROOF IMPRESSION of the 1st state, Annotated...
Category
Early 1900s American Impressionist John Marin Art
Materials
Etching
$5,100 Sale Price
26% Off
John Marin "Clock Tower of Santa Maria Zobenigo, Venice, Italy" Etching c.1907
By John Marin
Located in San Francisco, CA
John Marin "Clock Tower of Santa Maria Zobenigo, Venice, Italy" Original Pencil Signed Etching c.1907
Rare pencil signed etching by listed American artist John Marin (1870-1953)
Pl...
Category
Early 20th Century Impressionist John Marin Art
Materials
Etching
Woolworth Building, No. 2
By John Marin
Located in New York, NY
A superb, richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce etching and drypoint. Second state (of 2). Edition of approximately only 10. Signed in pencil by Marin. Published by Alfred...
Category
1910s Modern John Marin Art
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Drypoint, Etching
Ponte di Donna Onesta, Venice
By John Marin
Located in Missouri, MO
Very rare etching by John Marin.
"Ponte di Donna Onesta, Venice" 1907
Original Etching
Hand Signed Lower Right
Titled Lower Left
Edition: c. 30
Cat. Rais: ...
Category
Early 1900s Abstract John Marin Art
Materials
Etching
Price Upon Request
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By John Marin
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John Marin (1870 - 1953)
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Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
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John Marin art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic John Marin art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by John Marin in etching, aquatint, crayon and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large John Marin art, so small editions measuring 7 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of John French Sloan, Howard Norton Cook, and Kerr Eby. John Marin art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $400 and tops out at $45,000, while the average work can sell for $7,750.