Skyline with Boats in Foreground

John Marin's Skyline with Boats in Foreground (1910) is a watercolor with wiping, scraping, and blotting, and graphite with charcoal, on lightweight cream wove paper. This work shows the New York skyline seen from the river or harbor, with boats in the foreground providing a sense of scale and activity. The skyline is rendered as a jagged silhouette, the buildings rising against the sky in a rhythm of vertical forms. The wiping, scraping, and blotting techniques create varied textures that suggest the movement of water and the atmosphere of the harbor. The graphite and charcoal add structural definition. Marin's views of New York from the water are among his most beautiful works, capturing the city as it appears to those approaching it from the river. This watercolor belongs to the remarkable series of works Marin produced in 1910, the year that established his reputation as the leading American watercolorist of his generation.

Marin's harbor views of New York are among the most poetic images of the city in American art, capturing the sense of arrival and the dramatic silhouette of the skyline.

This watercolor of the New York skyline with boats captures the city as seen from the water, Marin's expressive techniques conveying the atmosphere of the harbor and the dramatic silhouette of the skyline.