?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 50,000 - $ 80,000
JOHN MARIN Small Point, Maine, from the Bumper.
Watercolor on thick, cream wove paper, 1928. 430x570 mm; 16 7/8x22 1/2 inches. Signed and dated in watercolor, lower right recto.
Exhibited, "New Marin Watercolors," An American Place, New York, catalogue #9, with the original label (see below). This was the first exhibition at Alfred Stieglitz's gallery, "An American Place," located at 508 Madison Avenue, where he continued to exhibit his favorite American Modernists.
Marin (1870-1953), renowned for his abstract watercolors and prints of landscapes and cityscapes (particularly of New York), was closely associated with Stieglitz. Their rapport began when Marin met Stieglitz's agent, Edward Steichen, while they were both in Paris in 1908 (Marin had been in Paris since 1905, making etchings very much in the style of James A. M. Whistler and hoping to establish himself as a fine artist). Steichen directed Stieglitz's attention to Marin's work, which prompted the gallery director to visit Marin's Parisian apartment. Stieglitz was extremely impressed and the following year, at Gallery 291 in New York (Stieglitz's first gallery), he held an exhibition of Marin's works. When Marin returned to the United States in 1911, Stieglitz began supplying him with a yearly stipend that would support and encourage his artistic output.
Even after Gallery 291 closed, Stieglitz continued to promote Marin's work and ultimately helped him attain critical acclaim. Marin's first major retrospective was held at the Daniel Gallery in New York in 1920. Stieglitz featured Marin's work in the famous "Seven Americans" exhibition at the Anderson Gallery, New York, and arranged another retrospective for the artist at his new gallery, the Intimate Gallery, in December 1925.
Marin spent his first summer in Maine in 1914 and returned there frequently throughout his career, drawn by the rugged wilderness, coastline and pristine landscapes. He maintained a summer home in Addison, Maine, where he died in 1953. Small Point, Maine, is on the coast, roughly between Portland and Boothbay Harbor.
