Rocks and Trees, Crotch Island, Maine,

1923

Upon returning to the US after travel throughout Europe, Marin applied the abstract style favored by the European avant-garde to distinctly American subjects, namely landscapes of coastal Maine and New York City. Here, using drawn charcoal lines interspersed with translucent swaths of watercolor, Marin depicts an island off the coast of Maine. The artist’s long-standing relationship with photographer and gallerist Alfred Stieglitz, who championed such Modernist interpretations of American subject matter, led to a series of exhibitions featuring Marin’s work beginning in 1909. In 1930 a solo show of Marin’s watercolors opened to great acclaim at Stieglitz’s gallery An American Place. Stieglitz exhibited Marin’s work more times than work by any other artist except Georgia O’Keeffe.