New York with View of the Flatiron Building

This lively work painted over a graphite sketch is a view looking down Broadway to the Flatiron Building at the corner of Twenty-Third Street and Fifth Avenue. The tall, narrow structure, seven blocks from Stieglitz’s gallery 291, was also the subject of photographs by Marin’s friends Stieglitz and Edward Steichen. This sheet demonstrates Marin’s increasingly fluid handling of paint, particularly where he pulled his brush, loaded with blue wash, around the tops of the buildings. Tilting the paper upright, he allowed the watercolor to pool at the end of each stroke, creating a vibrant pattern of gradating tone.