Landscape c. 1895 - 1900

John Marin made this watercolor, "Landscape," at an unknown date. Marin was one of a generation of American artists who grappled with modernism, filtering European ideas through a specifically American lens. Marin's landscape paintings often present nature as dynamic, almost violent, which suggests the influence of Italian futurism. But instead of celebrating the machine age, Marin applies this sense of energy to the natural world. This recalls back to the Transcendentalist movement and its reverence for nature that flourished in the United States in the mid-19th century. To understand Marin's work better, we can examine the exhibition records of galleries like Alfred Stieglitz's 291, which championed modern art. This helps us appreciate the complex dialogue between American identity, modernism, and the enduring appeal of the landscape. Ultimately, art history considers art's meaning to be deeply connected to its cultural and institutional context.