Near Quai d'Ivry, Paris

In Near Quai d’Ivry, Paris and Old House near Pont Nationale, Marin depicted a distant view of his subjects, situating his detailed drawings at the center of the page and leaving a surrounding halo of blank paper. This effect approximates the act of looking through a camera lens: the eye is drawn to the central focused area, and the periphery fades into the soft tones of blurred vision. Near Quai d’Ivry, Paris is an early example of Marin’s use of this framing motif, which he would employ to powerful effect in his later watercolors, such as The Pine Tree, Small Point, Maine.