Marin, John, 1870-1953

Painter, etcher.

John Marin was born in Rutherford, New Jersey, in 1870. He spent two years at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1898-1900), one year at the Art Students' league, and four years in Europe, mainly Paris, where he free-lanced in etching, oil, and watercolor. He was mentored by Alfred Stieglitz, famous New York photographer, who showed Marin's work alongside works by Rodin, Matisse, Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Georgia O'Keeffe, whom Stieglitz later married. Stieglitz also showed the work of photographer Paul Strand, who was Marin's neighbor for a time in Penobscot Bay, as well as residing in Taos at the same time Marin did. John Marin began as a landscapist, later painted city scenes, worked in etchings, and later was known as a watercolorist. His work showed at various galleries and museums.

Born in Rutherford, N.J., John Marin (1870-1953) became a leading early modern American painter. He lived in both Cliffside, N.J. and Addison, Maine.

Painter, watercolorist, Cliffside, N.J. Born Rutherford, N.J. Transformed watercolor into a major vehicle of artistic expression. Painted lanscapes of Maine and New York City.

John Marin (1870-1953) was a painter, engraver, and watercolorist in Paris, France and Cliffside, N.J.

Born in Rutherford, N.J., Marin became a leading early modern American painter. He lived in both Cliffside, N.J. and Addison, Maine. His friend, Charles Duncan, was an illustrator in Ridgefield, N.J.

American painter.

John Marin was born in Rutherford, New Jersey, in 1870. He spent two years at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1898-1900), one year at the Art Students' league, and four years in Europe, mainly Paris, where he free-lanced in etching, oil, and watercolor. He was mentored by Alfred Stieglitz, famous New York photographer, who showed Marin's work alongside works by Rodin, Matisse, Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Georgia O'Keeffe, whom Stieglitz later married. Stieglitz also showed the work of photographer Paul Strand, who was Marin's neighbor for a time in Penobscot Bay, as well as residing in Taos at the same time Marin did.

John Marin began as a landscapist, later painted city scenes, worked in etchings, and later was known as a watercolorist. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in a show of Marin's work, considered that "Marin had used the lessons of Futurism and Cubism in evolving a quasi-geometrical framework onto which he could graft his intensely personal reflections of the world." His work showed at various galleries and museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan (New York), and "291" the "Photo-Secession Gallery" also (later) known as "An American Place" or "The Place," owned by Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen. Marin's biographer, MacKinley Helm, writes, appropriately, that "Marin furthermore approached letter-writing with gaiety. His letters convey, for the most part, information, judgment, or appreciation." Certainly, this is the case for the letter in this collection.