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Dimensions: measurements 16 3/4 by 22 in. alternate measurements (42.5 by 55.9 cm)
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Provenance: Alfred Stieglitz, New York
John Marin, Jr. (artist's son)
Acquired from the above, 1959
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Exhibited: New York, An American Place, John Marin, October-December, 1935, no. 1
New York, The Downtown Gallery, n.d.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, John Marin--A Retrospective Exhibition, October, 1936, no. 153
Washington, D.C., Corcoran Gallery of Art; Manchester,
New Hampshire, Currier Gallery of Art, John Marin in Retrospect, March-June 1962, no. 73
Berlin, Germany, America House; Hamburg, Germany, America House, John Marin Exhibition, September-November, 1962, no. 53
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Museum of Art , Philadelphia Collects Twentieth Century, October-November 1963, p.23, illustrated
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Private Eye: A Salute to Philadelphia Collectors, 1979
Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University, Princeton Alumni Collections, Works on Paper, April-June 1981, p. 189
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Literature: Art News, November 2, 1935, vol. 34, p. 3
Sheldon Reich, John Marin: A Stylistic Analysis and Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. II, Tucson, Arizona, 1970, p. 661, no. 34.11, illustrated
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Notes: PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF J. WELLES HENDERSON
In a 1959 letter to J. Welles Henderson, John Marin, Jr. wrote: "'Shipstern' is probably one of the most unusual islands for its size, anywhere. The actual land not rocks might make up two to two and a half acres. About as rugged a two and a half acres as you would want to find. In the Summer it is full of live and dead trees engulfed with fern almost up to your waist. Navigating on this piece of land is extremely difficult. The shore of 'Shipstern' is almost, or lets just say damnably severe. About three-fourths of it being a wall of cliff; there being only one small spot, a matter of a few feet in which to land a craft; then just on a calm day. The water is usually anything but calm around the island. Painting a picture in a small open boat is quite difficult. With the result, I believe you possess the only painting by Marin or anybody else of 'Shipstern'. Maybe my father felt the streaks in the sky in your picture sort of form a halo over the island. For to John Marin it was a very precious piece of land."
