Echo Lake, Pennsylvania
1916
Medium
watercolor over graphite on wove paper
Dimensions
overall: 41.9 x 49.5 cm (16 1/2 x 19 1/2 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of John Marin, Jr.
Accession Number
1986.54.97
Art Historical Context
John Marin’s *Echo Lake, Pennsylvania* (1916) captures the essence of the American landscape during a pivotal moment in early 20th-century modernism. Marin, a trailblazing American artist, developed a distinctive style blending Post-Impressionist vibrancy with Cubist fragmentation. His watercolors often abstracted natural scenes into rhythmic patterns of color and line, evoking energy of wind, water, and light. Created amid World War I, this work reflects Marin’s focus on the serene beauty of domestic vistas like Pennsylvania’s Echo Lake, offering a counterpoint to global turmoil. Executed in...
About the Artist
John Marin
John Marin (1870-1953) was a pioneering American modernist known for his dynamic watercolors and oils of the Maine coast and New York City. A late bloomer who didn't commit to art until nearly 30, Marin developed a distinctive style combining European modernism with American subjects, capturing the energy of skyscrapers and the elemental power of the sea through fractured planes, vibrant color, an...