The Seine after the Storm 1908

John Marin made this watercolor, The Seine after the Storm, with washes of blues, grays, yellows, and browns, and you can almost feel the wetness of the scene. It’s like he’s capturing not just the look, but the very feeling of a city after the rain. There's something so immediate about watercolor; you can see every brushstroke, every decision the artist made. Look at how he’s laid down these transparent layers, letting the paper breathe through. The way he’s handled the bridge, for instance – it’s there, but it’s also dissolving into the water and sky. It is solid, but not solid! That little cluster of warm yellows and grays over to the right; it's the buildings, but it is also the sun breaking through the clouds. I think of other watercolorists, like Turner, who were also trying to capture these fleeting moments of light and atmosphere. But Marin’s got this American directness to him; he embraces the messiness and ambiguity of the medium. It’s less about perfection, more about the experience.