John Marin

Estate of the artist

Norman and John Marin, Jr., Cape Split, Maine (by descent from the above by 1961)

The Downtown Gallery, New York

Kennedy Galleries, New York

(probably) Acquired from the above circa 1980 by the present owner

Wilmington, The Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts, A Stieglitz Group, 1961, no. 25

Berlin, America House and Hamburg, America House, John Marin, 1870-1953, Ölbilder und Aquarelle, 1962, no. 27

Sheldon Reich, John Marin, Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 2, Tucson, Arizona 1970, no. 10.40, p. 347, illustrated

Downtown Gallery records, 1824-1974, bulk 1926-1969, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., microfilm ND33, frame 339

After traveling in Europe for several years, John Marin returned to New York in 1909 for his first solo exhibition at the Stieglitz 291 Gallery to find the city drastically changed. Upon his arrival, Marin was struck by the ongoing construction of the Woolworth building and the opening of the Manhattan Bridge. With the decade-long building of the Brooklyn Bridge backgrounding Marin’s childhood, the completion of the Manhattan Bridge signaled New York becoming a metropolis. The city “was passing through a corporate convulsion, a frightening and bewildering kind of high-tensioned life. It was like watching the first days of creation” (E. M Benson, Marin, Washington, D.C 1935, p. 35). As he wandered New York searching for inspiration, the modernizing city inspired a series of watercolors and sketches. A collection of watercolors focuses on the Woolworth building, which was under construction from 1910-1913 and remained the tallest building in the world until 1930. Similarly, Marin produced a large series on the Brooklyn Bridge as well as street scenes of construction. His interest in the active presence of modernization is expressed in his contemporary writing: “I see great forces at work; great movements; the large buildings and the small buildings; the warring of the great and the small” (quoted in Mackinley Helm, John Marin, Boston 1948, p. 28).

Completed in 1909, the Manhattan Bridge was a feat of modern infrastructure, both larger and stronger than the Brooklyn Bridge. The present work is a prime example of Marin’s return to the city, an awe inspired homage to modernity. He creates a dreamy watercolor which depicts movement, waterways and modern triumphs of construction. He portrays boats moving through the landscape and instills the commotion of the city in the background. Marin wrote in 1913, “I try to express graphically what a great city is doing. Within the frame there must be a balance, a controlling of these warring, pushing, pulling forces'' (quoted in ibid., p. 29).