Small Point, Maine

Following five years of travel and study in Europe, John Marin moved to New York in 1911 and painted, drew, and made prints of city and country views in images that became increasingly energetic and fragmented. Maine was a fertile subject for Marin over many years. Small Point, Maine, a lyrical watercolor almost square in format, is an example of his most evocative and poetic style. Freely brushed washes of watercolor-touches of green and brown in the foreground merge into blue and a horizontal stroke of brilliant red-orange- describe a quiet, picturesque site along the coast. Marin's subtly layered planes of color are strategically placed to ensure that the eye follows a specific path through the composition from the near shore to the sky above.

The AMAM's acquisition of Marin's watercolor in 1943 came about through a combination of Ellen Johnson's tenacity, high-spirited enthusiasm, and good fortune. While Johnson was on leave from her job as Oberlin College art librarian, Hazel King, the AMAM's first curator, asked her to keep an eye out for a good American watercolor for the collection. "It would be lovely if the museum could get a Marin," King said, "but with the prices he now commands, I know that's way out of the question." Aware that Alfred Stieglitz's gallery was an early supporter of Marin's work, with many exhibitions devoted to his watercolors, Johnson went to meet the legendary photographer and eventually broached the subject. When she quoted the price Oberlin was able to pay, Stieglitz replied, "All right then, that's the price," and showed her a room filled with drawers and boxes of Marin watercolors. "Pick out whatever you want," Stieglitz said, and left.

After looking through a "whole Marin retrospective," as Johnson described it, she had just put aside six watercolors when Stieglitz's wife, artist Georgia O'Keeffe, burst into the room and asked what she was doing. "Mr. Stieglitz said I could select one for an Oberlin Museum purchase," replied Johnson. O'Keeffe asked at what price, and when told, was appalled at the low sum. She refused to let Johnson have any of her first four choices. When O'Keeffe got to Johnson's fifth choice, Stieglitz called "in no uncertain terms, 'Georgia, let her have one of her choices.' " As Johnson concluded, "That's how we got our Marin- and how I met Georgia O'Keeffe."