John Marin (1870-1953)

While John Marin's impressive oeuvre includes works that portray locales spanning from the wind-swept coast of Maine to the craggy precipices of New Mexico, the works that depict the urban landscapes found in and around New York City are some of his most highly regarded compositions.

After the death of his parents, Marin lived with his grandparents for much of his childhood in Weehawken, New Jersey, a town of grain elevators and docks located across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Docks, Boat, and City Skyline was very likely painted from the vantage point of Weehawken looking across the river to the city. Typical of his Weehawken works, "some are painted with an effusive approach to the sumptuousness of oil, whereas others are more cautiously handled, the paint applied with less overt energy. Some are dominated by grays and browns, whereas others are marked by a sense of warmth, with grayed red-violets, for example, playing a crucial role." (R. Fine, John Marin, Washington, D.C., 1990, p. 119) While the bold, flat brushstrokes delineate the cold and rigid architectural elements such as the pier in the foreground or the cityscape in the background, Marin's distinctly warm palette of soft grays, burnt orange, and turquoise adds an emotional component to the scene. The delicate and subtle tones of the grayed-red violets that envelop the scene underscore Marin's reverence for his local surroundings.