John Marin
Tunk Mountains

ArtistAmerican, 1870–1953
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Tunk Mountains
Date1952
Place depictedMaine, United States
MediumWatercolor and black crayon on wove paper
DimensionsSheet: 14 3/4 × 19 7/8 in. (37.5 × 50.5 cm)
Frame: 22 3/8 × 27 1/2 in. (56.8 × 69.9 cm)
Credit LineThe Alice C. Simkins Collection, gift of Alice C. Simkins and museum purchase funded by Evan Katz in honor of Jerold B. Katz at "One Great Night in November, 2016"
Object number2016.316
Non exposé

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Description

Painted just a year before his death, "Tunk Mountains, Maine" confirms John Marin’s life-long commitment to the intimate scale of watercolor. Viewed from a promontory he returned to many times after establishing a summer home in Cape Split, in 1933, this vista was among Marin’s favorites, with its paired profiles of the two mountains and glimpse of a lake folded into the valley on the left.

Most likely working on site, Marin quickly sketched the contours of the surrounding area in black crayon, then used staccato strokes to lay down pure blocks of red, blue, green, and black. Marin also painted a variation of this vista in oils that year as well. Now in the collection of the Wichita Art Museum, the oil painting is dominated by rose colors, grays, and brown, with dramatic incidents of impasto. Comparing these two versions of "Tunk Mountains," it is clear that Marin was not using watercolor as a preliminary process for the more finished oil. Rather, the two compositions attest to Marin’s fascination with landscape as an ever-changing panorama.


ProvenanceThe artist; Lewis P. Cabot, Boston; Estate of the artist, until 1998; [Richard York Gallery, New York, 1998]; The Alice C. Simkins Collection, San Antonio, February 23, 1998; to MFAH, 2016.
Exhibition History"John Marin Exhibition: Paintings of the 1950’s," Downtown Gallery, New York, December 29, 1953–January 30, 1954.

"Marin," Felix Landau Gallery, Los Angeles, June 21–July 9, 1960.

"John Marin in Retrospect: An Exhibition of His Oils and Watercolors," Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., March 2–April 15, 1962 (traveled to the Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH).

"John Marin 1870-1953: Ölbilder und Aquarelle," Amerika Haus, Berlin, 1962.

"John Marin’s Autumn," Kennedy Galleries, New York, October 8–29, 1988.

"Selections and Transformations: The Art of John Marin," National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., January 28–April 15, 1990.

"John Marin: Between Realism and Abstraction," Kennedy Galleries, New York, October 4–November 1,
1997.

“American Modern: Works from the Collection of Alice C. Simkins,” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, April 15–July 19, 2015.

"The Rise of Modernism: Europe and America," The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Aug. 20, 2021 - Jan. 2, 2022. [Second Installation/Light-Sensitive Rotation: Kinder Building 207: No Catalog]
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Recto: Signed and dated in graphite, bottom right corner: Marin 52
Verso: inscribed in graphite at bottom right: 23 1/4 x 9 [upside down]
Recto: Signed and dated in graphite, bottom right corner: Marin 52
Verso: [inaccessible, mounted]
Watermark: none.
Catalogue raisonnéReich, Sheldon. "John Marin: A Stylistic Analysis and Catalogue," vol. 2, no. 52.53, ill. p. 809 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1970).

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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