A Little Yearling, Ayrshire Bull, Rowe, Massachusetts 1918

John Marin made this watercolor drawing of a Little Yearling Ayrshire Bull in Rowe, Massachusetts, sometime in the 1940s. What gets me is the tentative quality of the marks – the bull is barely there, still emerging. You can see the ghost of the graphite lines underneath, like a half-erased thought. The painting has these washes of pale green and tan, delicate and thin, with just a touch of brighter red on the ears, like little flags. Look closely, and you’ll see these repeated dashes of white, following the form of the animal. It’s as if he’s describing not just the shape but also the light hitting the surface. I think of Marsden Hartley, another painter who was part of the Stieglitz circle with Marin. Both artists had a real feel for place and a way of capturing the essence of things with a kind of raw, direct expression. This bull feels so present, so alive, not just a representation, but a feeling.