John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

American, 1872-1953

John Marin was born in Rutherford, New Jersey in 1870. His father was a public accountant; his mother died nine days after his birth. He was taken to his maternal grandparents with whom he lived in Weehawken, New Jersey. His grandparents, with their son and two daughters were the only parents Marin was to know; it has been suggested that his father seems to have ignored him. As a child of seven or eight Marin began to sketch and when he was a teenager he had completed his earliest watercolors. His education in the schools of New Jersey was interspersed with summers of hunting, fishing and sketching; he traveled in the Catskills, and as far away as Wisconsin and Minnesota. But formal training was almost incidental to his development as an artist. He is to America what Paul Cezanne was to France - an innovator who helped to oppose the influence of the narrative painters, the illustrators who were more interested in subject than form, in surface than substance. Marin brought to his work a combination of values which, at the turn of the century, was unique in this country: an aliveness of touch, colors that have both sparkle and solidity, and forms that are vibrant with an energy characteristic of our age. Marin established himself as a practicing architect. In the early 1890s, he worked for four architects and by 1893 had designed six houses in Union Hill, New Jersey. At the age of twenty-eight, he decided to become a professional artist and studied briefly at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and the Art Students League in New York City. As a watercolorist he had no equal. He used this fluid, spontaneous medium to abstract from objects - skyscrapers, boats, mountains and seas - a simplified anatomy of color and form and to define the pulsation of stresses and movements in the relationship of objects. It was a great disappointment, all his life, that his oil paintings did not achieve the popularity that his watercolors did. From 1905 to 1910 he worked in Europe, where he was influenced by Whistler's watercolors. It was Alfred Stieglitz, Marin's lifetime friend and dealer, whose firm faith in his genius made his position in the art world possible. He developed a distinctive style that he used most characteristically in powerful watercolors of the Maine coast. During the 1920s he provided the dominant force in the movement away from naturalistic representation towards an art of expressive semi-abstraction. He married Marie Jane Hughes after he returned to New York. They had one son, who grew up to run his father's considerable affairs. Marin continued to work at the same steady fast pace as long as he lived. Since 1908 he had produced 1700 paintings, an average of forty a year. He had made the frames for them as well. At the age of seventy-nine, he began to taper off from the days when he painted one hundred watercolors in a summer. He died in 1953.

Artist: John Marin

John MarinBrooklyn Bridge NYC American Scene Ashcan 20th Century Social Realism Modern, c. 1925

$39,000

Brooklyn Bridge NYC American Scene Ashcan 20th Century Social Realism Modern

By John Marin

Located in New York, NY

Brooklyn Bridge NYC American Scene Ashcan 20th Century Social Realism Modern John Marin (1870-1953) Brooklyn Bridge 7 1/2 x 9 7/8 inches Graphite on paper Signed lower right, c. 1...

Category

1920s American Modern John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Graphite

John Marin"A Bit of Stonington" John Marin, American Modernism, Maine Landscape, 1926

$30,000

"A Bit of Stonington" John Marin, American Modernism, Maine Landscape

By John Marin

Located in New York, NY

John Marin A Bit of Stonington, 1926 Signed and dated lower right, inscribed and dated on the reverse Watercolor and charcoal on paper 13 3/4 x 17 inches Provenance The Downtown Gal...

Category

1920s American Modern John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Charcoal, Watercolor

John MarinNew York Street Movement and Figure - Architecture, 1925

$32,000

New York Street Movement and Figure - Architecture

By John Marin

Located in Miami, FL

This work by John Marin depicts an image of lower Manhattan which was Marin's more iconic subject matter. The work has a stellar provenance as well. Provenance: Kennedy Galleries Richard York Gallery ACA Galleries...

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1920s American Modern John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Crayon

Charles E. BurchfieldUntitled (Trees), 1916

$45,000

H 10 in W 14 in

Untitled (Trees)

By Charles E. Burchfield

Located in Buffalo, NY

An original watercolor on paper by American modernist Charles E. Burchfield, created in 1916. This work comes in an archival frame presentation and has been authenticated by the Bur...

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1910s American Modern John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

John LearJohn Lear Male Nude American Modernist Watercolor Landscape Gay Male Nude, 1985

$3,200

H 17 in W 16 in

John Lear Male Nude American Modernist Watercolor Landscape Gay Male Nude

Located in New York, NY

John Brock Lear, Jr., an American Modernist artist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His works are in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Woodmere Art Museum, the D...

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Late 20th Century American Modern John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Graphite

David FredenthalNYC Watercolor Drawing American Modern 20th Century Modernism Mid-Century WPA, c. 1948

$6,000

H 11 in W 14 in

NYC Watercolor Drawing American Modern 20th Century Modernism Mid-Century WPA

By David Fredenthal

Located in New York, NY

NYC Watercolor Drawing American Modern 20th Century Modernism Mid-Century WPA. David Fredenthal (1914-1958) "View of New York from New Jersey,"7 x 10 inches. Watercolor on Paper, c. 1948. Signed lower right. David Fredenthal (1914 - 1958) was one ot America's most respected watercolor artists. He was famous for his bold, intensely vigorous and complex paintings and drawings that expressed his deep feeling for excitement with life and living. He was a draftsman with seemingly a special gift for catching anything, physically and emotionally on the spot, and he never went anywhere without three or four loaded pens and a sketchbook in his pocket. As part of the WPA project he executed a number of murals including the Sports Pavilion on the Heinz Building of the New York World's Fair 1939. Some of his fresco and mural techniques were inspired by his friendship with Diego Rivera who had admired and encouraged him in the early 1930's. After he won a traveling scholarship to Europe from The Museum of Modern Art at age 19, he was the recipient of two Guggenheim grants in Painting. He had his first solo exhibition at the Downtown Gallery in New York in 1937 at age 23, and many others after that including the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1947. Because of Fredenthal's prodigious drawing gifts, he was chosen by Erskine Caldwell to illustrate his novel "Tobacco Road...

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1940s American Modern John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Gabriel RiesnertMay Green, Contemporary Impressionist-inspired Oil Pastel, 30x42cm, 2026, 2026

$576

H 11.7 in W 16.54 in D 0.79 in

May Green, Contemporary Impressionist-inspired Oil Pastel, 30x42cm, 2026

By Gabriel Riesnert

Located in AIX-EN-PROVENCE, FR

Work : Original artwork inspired by the Impressionist style, Unique Work executed entirely by hand by the artist. Subject : May Green (Title) The piece celebrates springtime renew...

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21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Oil Crayon, Oil Pastel, Archival Paper

Charles E. BurchfieldCharles Burchfield Preparatory Sketch, Early 20th Century, Early 20th Century

$1,500

H 12.25 in W 18.75 in

Charles Burchfield Preparatory Sketch, Early 20th Century

By Charles E. Burchfield

Located in New York, NY

Charles Burchfield (1893-1967) Untitled (Preparatory Drawing for Skyscape), Early 20th Century Pencil on paper 12 1/4 x 18 3/4 in. Inscribed: blue / white / blue / RV Born in Ashtab...

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Early 20th Century American Modern John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Pencil

Francis ChapinA Dynamic Mid-Century Modern Manhattan Scene, New York City by Francis Chapin, Circa 1950

$1,600

H 24 in W 29 in D 0.13 in

A Dynamic Mid-Century Modern Manhattan Scene, New York City by Francis Chapin

By Francis Chapin

Located in Chicago, IL

A Large, Dynamic 1950s Mid-Century Modern Watercolor of Lower Manhattan, New York City by Noted Chicago Artist, Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). The image is watercolor, pastel and c...

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Mid-20th Century American Modern John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Archival Paper, Charcoal, Pastel

Charles E. BurchfieldBlizzard in Woods Graphite Drawing, American Modern, Circa 1945-1963, c. 1945-1963

$7,500

H 10.89 in W 16.5 in

Blizzard in Woods Graphite Drawing, American Modern, Circa 1945-1963

By Charles E. Burchfield

Located in Fairlawn, OH

Blizzard in Woods Graphite on paper, c. 1945-1963 Unsigned Provenance: Sid Deutsch Gallery, New York Annotated with notes for completing the drawing. Deutsch Gallery has handled Bur...

Category

1940s American Modern John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Graphite

Max Arthur CohnNYC Cityscape American Scene Social Realism Mid-Century, c. 1930

$5,500

H 19 in W 25 in

NYC Cityscape American Scene Social Realism Mid-Century

By Max Arthur Cohn

Located in New York, NY

NYC Cityscape American Scene Social Realism Mid-Century Max Arthur Cohn (1903-1998) New York City Skyline 14 x 21 1/2 inches Watercolor on paper, c. 1...

Category

1930s American Modern John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Christian BergBeneath the Birch Drawing by Swedish Artist Christian Berg (1893–1976), 1920s

$3,353

H 14.97 in W 11.62 in

Beneath the Birch Drawing by Swedish Artist Christian Berg (1893–1976)

Located in Stockholm, SE

We are proud to present an exquisite drawing by the renowned artist Christian Berg (1893-1976), executed around the 1920s. This captivating artwork port...

Category

1920s Naturalistic John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Board, Pencil

Oscar LyckeSummer Landscape near Sundsvall, 1911, 1911

$4,696

H 13.39 in W 15.75 in

Summer Landscape near Sundsvall, 1911

By Oscar Lycke

Located in Stockholm, SE

In this radiant drawing from 1911, Swedish artist Oskar Lycke captures the quiet grandeur of a summer landscape near Sundsvall in northern Sweden. The view stretches across a serene ...

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1910s Post-Impressionist John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Crayon, Ink

August F. BiehleHouses in Zoar, Ohio Landscape, Early 20th Century Cleveland School, c. 1921

$7,250

H 20.25 in W 20.25 in

Houses in Zoar, Ohio Landscape, Early 20th Century Cleveland School

By August F. Biehle

Located in Beachwood, OH

August Frederick Biehle (1885-1979) Houses in Zoar, c. 1921 Gouache, litho crayon, colored pencil and graphite on paper Signed lower right 14 x 19 inches 20.25 x 25.25 inches, framed...

Category

1920s American Modern John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Crayon, Gouache, Color Pencil, Graphite

Emil Bisttram"Taos Women" Emil Bisttram, Modernist, New Mexico Artist, Southwestern, Figures, circa 1930s

$2,500

H 19.5 in W 17.25 in

"Taos Women" Emil Bisttram, Modernist, New Mexico Artist, Southwestern, Figures

Located in New York, NY

Emil Bisttram Taos Women Signed lower right Pencil on paper 11 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches Provenance David Cook Fine Art, Denver, Colorado Clare Walker Fine Art, Tarrytown, New York Bistt...

Category

1930s American Modern John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Pencil

Previously Available Items

John Marin"Looking out the Window, West Point, Maine, " John Marin, Modernist Landscape, 1914

Sold

H 23.5 in W 19.5 in

"Looking out the Window, West Point, Maine, " John Marin, Modernist Landscape

By John Marin

Located in New York, NY

John Marin Looking out the Window, West Point, Maine, 1914 Signed and dated at lower right: Marin 14 // inscribed in Alfred Stieglitz's hand on an original label affixed to the reverse: Looking out the Window, Deer Isle— [sic] / Maine / by John Marin— / 1914 Watercolor and graphite on paper 19 1/2 x 15 3/4 inches Provenance: The artist An American Place, New York, circa 1935 Dorothy Norman...

Category

1910s Modern John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Graphite

John Marin"Delaware River Near Lambertville, New Jersey, " John Marin, American Modernism, 1950

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H 19 in W 23 in

"Delaware River Near Lambertville, New Jersey, " John Marin, American Modernism

By John Marin

Located in New York, NY

John Marin (1870 - 1953) Delaware River Near Lambertville, New Jersey, No. 3, 1950 Watercolor, ink and pencil on paper 9 3/4 x 14 inches Signed and dated lower right: Marin 50' Prov...

Category

1950s American Modern John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Gouache, Pen, Pencil

John Marin"The Coast, Maine, " John Marin Early American Modernism New England Seascape, 1914

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H 15.5 in W 18.5 in

"The Coast, Maine, " John Marin Early American Modernism New England Seascape

By John Marin

Located in New York, NY

John Marin (1870 - 1953) The Coast, 1914 Watercolor and pencil on paper 15 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches Signed and dated lower right: Marin 14 Provenance: Ferdinand Howald, Columbus, Ohio C...

Category

1910s American Modern John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

John Marin"Delaware River Near Lambertville, New Jersey, " Mid-century Modern American, 1950

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H 10 in W 14 in

"Delaware River Near Lambertville, New Jersey, " Mid-century Modern American

By John Marin

Located in New York, NY

John Marin (1870 - 1953) Delaware River Near Lambertville, New Jersey, No. 3, 1950 Watercolor, ink and pencil on paper 9 3/4 x 14 inches Signed and dated lower right: Marin 50' Prov...

Category

1950s American Modern John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Gouache, Pen, Pencil

John MarinSaint Paul’s New York City, c. 1913

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H 15 in W 16.25 in D 1 in

Saint Paul’s New York City

By John Marin

Located in Fairlawn, OH

Signed lower right “Marin” Provenance: Estate of the artist Kennedy Galleries, 1985 Jeffrey M. Kaplan Collection, Washington, D.C. Illustrated: Kennedy Galleries ...

Category

1910s American Modern John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Graphite

John MarinMark and Andrews Island from Deer Isle, Maine, 1920

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H 16 in W 19.25 in

Mark and Andrews Island from Deer Isle, Maine

By John Marin

Located in Greenwich, CT

Provenance: estate of the artist private collection, Massachusetts Exhibitions: Felix Landau Gallery, Los Angeles, California, Paintings and Watercolors by John Marin, June 21 ...

Category

1910s Realist John Marin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

John Marin drawings and watercolor paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic John Marin drawings and watercolor paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by John Marin in crayon and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 1920s and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large John Marin drawings and watercolor paintings, so small editions measuring 10 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Frank Wilcox, Louis Wolchonok, and Reginald Marsh. John Marin drawings and watercolor paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $32,000 and tops out at $32,000, while the average work can sell for $32,000.