Skip to main content

John Marin Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

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
2
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
3
2
1
3
2
1
2
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
13
143
125
66
62
2
3
Artist: John Marin
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 Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

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...
Category

1940s American Modern John Marin Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

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 Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Crayon

Related Items
Rainstorm Sunset
By Robert Noel Blair
Located in Buffalo, NY
You are viewing a modernist American watercolor painting by Robert Noel Blair. Robert Noel Blair (American, 1912-2003) was an American artist, painter, sculptor, printmaker and te...
Category

American Modern John Marin Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Nude Picnic Virgin Islands
By Robert Noel Blair
Located in Buffalo, NY
Robert Noel Blair (American, 1912-2003) was an American artist, painter, sculptor, printmaker and teacher. He is best known for his rural life & desert landscapes and World War II sc...
Category

1960s American Modern John Marin Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Archival Paper, Watercolor

“Rocky Mountain Meadow”
By Werner Drewes
Located in Southampton, NY
Original watercolor on archival paper of a Rocky Mountain Meadow by the well known American artist, Werner Drewes. Signed lower right. Titled and dated 1956 on verso of sheet. Con...
Category

1950s American Modern John Marin Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Archival Paper

Blue Mountains, New Mexico
By Carl Oscar Borg
Located in Stockholm, SE
In this luminous landscape study, Carl Oscar Borg captures the serene beauty of the New Mexican high desert, likely looking toward Mount Taylor, a sacred peak that rises above the su...
Category

Early 20th Century Romantic John Marin Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Gouache

NYC Watercolor Drawing American Modern 20th Century Modernism Mid-Century WPA
By David Fredenthal
Located in New York, NY
NYC Watercolor Drawing American Modern 20th Century Modernism Mid-Century WPA. David Fredenthal (1914-1958) "View of New York from New Jersey,"7 x 10 inches. Watercolor on Paper, c. 1948. Signed lower right. David Fredenthal (1914 - 1958) was one ot America's most respected watercolor artists. He was famous for his bold, intensely vigorous and complex paintings and drawings that expressed his deep feeling for excitement with life and living. He was a draftsman with seemingly a special gift for catching anything, physically and emotionally on the spot, and he never went anywhere without three or four loaded pens and a sketchbook in his pocket. As part of the WPA project he executed a number of murals including the Sports Pavilion on the Heinz Building of the New York World's Fair 1939. Some of his fresco and mural techniques were inspired by his friendship with Diego Rivera who had admired and encouraged him in the early 1930's. After he won a traveling scholarship to Europe from The Museum of Modern Art at age 19, he was the recipient of two Guggenheim grants in Painting. He had his first solo exhibition at the Downtown Gallery in New York in 1937 at age 23, and many others after that including the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1947. Because of Fredenthal's prodigious drawing gifts, he was chosen by Erskine Caldwell to illustrate his novel "Tobacco Road...
Category

1940s American Modern John Marin Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Mid Century "Napa Valley Landscape" Watercolor Painting
By Frederick Pomeroy
Located in Arp, TX
Frederick Pomeroy "Napa Valley Landscape" c. 1960s Watercolor on paper 17"x14" brown wood frame float mount over linen mat Signed in paint lower ...
Category

1960s American Modern John Marin Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Archival Paper

Untitled
By Fred Nagler
Located in Dallas, TX
Fred Nagler was born in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he first studied wood carving. From 1914 to 1917, he studied at The Art Students League of New York, where his prof...
Category

20th Century American Modern John Marin Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite, Paper, Watercolor

Untitled
H 10 in W 13.88 in
A 1940s American Scene Watercolor of a Chicago Street Scene by Grace Spongberg
Located in Chicago, IL
A 1940s American Scene watercolor depicting a snowy Chicago Street Scene by artist Grace Spongberg. Image size: 12 1/2" x 17". Framed size: 18 1/2" x 22 1/2". This painting come...
Category

1940s American Modern John Marin Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Charles Burchfield Preparatory Sketch, Early 20th Century
By Charles E. Burchfield
Located in New York, NY
Charles Burchfield (1893-1967) Untitled (Preparatory Drawing for Skyscape), Early 20th Century Pencil on paper 12 1/4 x 18 3/4 in. Inscribed: blue / white / blue / RV Born in Ashtab...
Category

Early 20th Century American Modern John Marin Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pencil

"Times Square" Mid 20th Century 1937 Modernism Broadway Drawing NYC Cityscape
Located in New York, NY
"Times Square" Mid 20th Century 1937 Modernism Broadway Drawing NYC Cityscape Philip Goodwin (20th Century) "Times Square," 23 ½ x 17 ¼ inches. Gouache...
Category

1930s American Modern John Marin Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Gouache

1930s Watercolor of a Chicago Rail Yard by Notable Chicago Artist Tunis Ponsen
By Tunis Ponsen
Located in Chicago, IL
A 1930s Watercolor titled "Chicago Rail Yard" by important Chicago/Michigan artist Tunis Ponsen. Image size: 10 1/2" x 15 1/2". Framed size: 18" x 23 1/2". This watercolor comes...
Category

1930s American Modern John Marin Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Reginald Marsh "Brooklyn Bridge" NYC Modernism WPA Mid-Century Watercolor Modern
By Reginald Marsh
Located in New York, NY
Reginald Marsh "Brooklyn Bridge" NYC Modernism WPA Mid-Century Watercolor Modern Reginald Marsh (American, 1898-1954) Brooklyn Bridge, 1940, Signed and dated Reginald Marsh May 1940 (lr), Watercolor over traces of pencil on paper , 15 x 22 inches sight. Reginald Marsh was born in Paris, France in 1898, the child of artist parents. He was born over a small cafe on Paris' Left Bank. He was brought to the United States in 1900 and was drawing before he was three. He studied art at Yale University and the Art Students League, during which time he worked primarily as an illustrator for New York newspapers and magazines. After studying in Paris in 1925 and 1926, he turned seriously to painting. In 1929 he was introduced to the egg-tempera medium, which he used extensively the rest of his life. Marsh's gusto for painting the bottom crust of society contrasted curiously with his background. His parents, both well-known artists, were steeped in academic traditions. He attended Lawrenceville Academy and Yale; perhaps this elite background made it possible to paint the earthy people he did with a journalist's objectivity. An admirer of Rubens and Delacroix, he disliked modernist art; indeed, his lifelong preoccupation was with people - enjoying themselves at beaches, at amusement parks, or on crowded city streets. Marsh was a second-generation Ash Can School painter and printmaker, best known as an urban regionalist. He spent his days sketching in small notebooks...
Category

1940s American Modern John Marin Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Previously Available Items
"Looking out the Window, West Point, Maine, " John Marin, Modernist Landscape
By John Marin
Located in New York, NY
John Marin Looking out the Window, West Point, Maine, 1914 Signed and dated at lower right: Marin 14 // inscribed in Alfred Stieglitz's hand on an original label affixed to the reverse: Looking out the Window, Deer Isle— [sic] / Maine / by John Marin— / 1914 Watercolor and graphite on paper 19 1/2 x 15 3/4 inches Provenance: The artist An American Place, New York, circa 1935 Dorothy Norman...
Category

1910s Modern John Marin Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Graphite

"Delaware River Near Lambertville, New Jersey, " John Marin, American Modernism
By John Marin
Located in New York, NY
John Marin (1870 - 1953) Delaware River Near Lambertville, New Jersey, No. 3, 1950 Watercolor, ink and pencil on paper 9 3/4 x 14 inches Signed and dated lower right: Marin 50' Prov...
Category

1950s American Modern John Marin Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Gouache, Pen, Pencil

"The Coast, Maine, " John Marin Early American Modernism New England Seascape
By John Marin
Located in New York, NY
John Marin (1870 - 1953) The Coast, 1914 Watercolor and pencil on paper 15 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches Signed and dated lower right: Marin 14 Provenance: Ferdinand Howald, Columbus, Ohio C...
Category

1910s American Modern John Marin Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

"Delaware River Near Lambertville, New Jersey, " Mid-century Modern American
By John Marin
Located in New York, NY
John Marin (1870 - 1953) Delaware River Near Lambertville, New Jersey, No. 3, 1950 Watercolor, ink and pencil on paper 9 3/4 x 14 inches Signed and dated lower right: Marin 50' Prov...
Category

1950s American Modern John Marin Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Gouache, Pen, Pencil

Saint Paul’s New York City
By John Marin
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed lower right “Marin” Provenance: Estate of the artist Kennedy Galleries, 1985 Jeffrey M. Kaplan Collection, Washington, D.C. Illustrated: Kennedy Galleries ...
Category

1910s American Modern John Marin Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

Mark and Andrews Island from Deer Isle, Maine
By John Marin
Located in Greenwich, CT
Provenance: estate of the artist private collection, Massachusetts Exhibitions: Felix Landau Gallery, Los Angeles, California, Paintings and Watercolors by John Marin, June 21 ...
Category

1910s Realist John Marin Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

John Marin landscape drawings and watercolors for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic John Marin landscape drawings and watercolors available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by John Marin in crayon and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 1920s and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large John Marin landscape drawings and watercolors, so small editions measuring 10 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Frank Wilcox, Louis Wolchonok, and Charles E. Burchfield. John Marin landscape drawings and watercolors prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $32,000 and tops out at $32,000, while the average work can sell for $32,000.

Recently Viewed

View All