Buildings

Three watercolor sketches—Skyline with Boats in Foreground; New York Skyline, Boats in Foreground; and this sheet, Buildings—adopt views of the densely clustered buildings of New York seen from the Hudson River and demonstrate the diversity of Marin’s watercolor techniques at this time. Their differences point to his growing desire to experiment with his methodology as a watercolor painter. This sketch, possibly made from the Brooklyn Bridge, takes a view of the skyline similar to the other two, yet Marin transformed the small sheet into a kind of floating fantasy. He combined the fluid, improvisational technique of the Weehawken scenes with warm-cool color contrasts, a palette that he soon developed into the iridescent effects seen in his later watercolors.