Rocks and Sea: Small Point, Maine

1931

Rocks and Sea: Small Point, Maine, 1931. John Marin (American, 1870–1953). Oil on canvas; framed: 65.4 x 80.6 x 6.4 cm (25 3/4 x 31 3/4 x 2 1/2 in.); unframed: 56.2 x 71 cm (22 1/8 x 27 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund 1956.361 © Estate of John Marin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Primarily a watercolorist, Marin did not start working with oil paints in earnest until he was 60 years old. This vigorously rendered scene focuses on white-capped waves colliding against the rugged contours of shoreline. The artist found Maine endlessly captivating, describing it as "one fierce, relentless, cruel, beautiful, fascinating, hellish, and all other ish'es place." In a poll of art critics held in 1948 by Look magazine, Marin was named “America’s Artist No. 1.”