The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 23, 2025

Tree and Sea, Maine

1919

John Marin

(American, 1870–1953)
America
Watercolor on thick wove paper
22.9 x 29.8 cm (9 x 11 3/4 in.)
Dudley P. Allen Fund 1937.514
© Estate of John Marin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

In 1915, Marin bought a small island off the coast of Small Point Harbor, Maine.

Description

By 1919, Marin was a summer regular in Maine where he continued to find inspiration for his experiments in watercolor. This composition focuses on an evergreen tree, which he often highlighted as a symbol of steadfastness amid a harsh and changing environment. Unusually realistic in terms of palette, Marin nevertheless played with the abstract shapes of the rising hill, horizon, and sea in this composition.
  • 1937
    Estate of Charles T. Brooks
  • Coe, Nancy. "'Rocks and Sea, Small Point, Maine.'" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 44, no. 1 (January 1957): 9-12. Mentioned: p. 9 www.jstor.org
    Reich, Sheldon. John Marin: A Stylistic Analysis and Catalogue Raisonné. 2 vols. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1970. II: 474, no. 19.43
  • Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 11, 2022-January 8, 2023).
    John Marin Memorial Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 17, 1955-January 1, 1956); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (March 1-October 13, 1956); The Phillips Collection (March 1-October 13, 1956); Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (March 1-October 13, 1956); Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA (March 1-October 13, 1956); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA (March 1-October 13, 1956).
  • {{cite web|title=Tree and Sea, Maine|url=false|author=John Marin|year=1919|access-date=23 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1937.514