Buildings

John Marin's Buildings (1917) is a graphite drawing with erasing on lightweight ivory wove paper. This later drawing shows Marin continuing his exploration of architectural subjects in a purely graphic medium. The buildings are rendered with precise, controlled lines that define their forms and their relationship to each other and to the sky. The erasing creates highlights that give the drawing a sense of light and atmosphere. The ivory wove paper provides a warm, luminous ground. This drawing from 1917 shows Marin working in a more restrained mode than his expressive watercolors, but the same sensitivity to the energy and character of the urban landscape is evident. The buildings are not merely architectural studies but expressions of the life and energy of the city, captured through the discipline of line. By 1917, Marin had established himself as one of the leading figures in American modernism, and this drawing demonstrates the range of his draftsmanship beyond the watercolor medium for which he is best known.

Marin's architectural drawings demonstrate his mastery of line and his ability to capture the character of the urban landscape through the discipline of graphite, complementing his more famous watercolors.

This graphite drawing of buildings captures the structure and energy of the urban landscape with precision and sensitivity, Marin's controlled line revealing his mastery of the graphic medium.