Mrs. Haviland 1911

John Marin made this watercolor, Mrs. Haviland, with fluid strokes and a real sense of immediacy; you get the feeling he was really in the moment. He wasn’t trying to capture every little detail; he was capturing a feeling. What I love about this piece is the way the light just seems to shimmer and dance across the surface. Look at the way he handles the background, with those loose washes of color that suggest wallpaper, or maybe a curtain. There’s a real lightness of touch, and it feels so fresh and spontaneous. The colors are muted – browns, blues, and creams – but they create a sense of depth and atmosphere. You can see the paper shining through, adding to that sense of transparency. The way he’s built up the layers of paint, especially in the figure’s dress, is incredible. Each stroke feels deliberate, yet there’s still a sense of playfulness. Marin’s contemporary, John Singer Sargent, another watercolorist, comes to mind. Like Sargent, Marin wasn’t afraid to leave things unfinished, to let the viewer’s imagination fill in the gaps. It’s this ambiguity, this sense of endless possibilities, that makes it so compelling.