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John Marin (1870-1953) trees in autumn foliage, maine signed Marin and dated '48, l.r. oil on canvas 22 by 28in. (55.9 by 71.1cm.) Highly acclaimed as one of America's premier modernists, John Marin was widely known and admired during his lifetime. He was primarily concerned with the color and pattern of the world around him and used his paintings to express the natural rhythm of his environment. Describing Marin's paintings of trees from the 1940s, Ruth E. Fine writes, "They are formed as much by dots as by line, both setting up a vibration across the surface of the sheet itself as it interacts with the paint. This vibration is more dramatic in Marin's autumn paintings of the period. In ... the oil Trees in Autumn Foliage, Maine the brilliant reds and golds hug the surface while the calligraphic line suggests a deep landscape space. Both point to the expanded visual as well as physical role of the support in Marin's late paintings, coming close to that of the paper in his etchings, in their use of the white primed canvas or watercolor sheet as a primary formal element" (Selections and Transformations: The Art of John Marin, Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, pp. 265, 271). Drawing on themes he had previously explored in watercolor, the present work uses broken lines and abstract forms to express the energy and vitality Marin saw in the Maine landscape. By 1948, the year in which the present work was painted, Marin had gained national recognition, receiving praise from fellow avant-garde artists, critics and collectors. Marin's close friendship and successful working relationship with Alfred Stieglitz heightened his exposure, with annual one-man exhibitions appearing at Steiglitz's galleries between 1909 and 1950. As Klaus Kertess writes, "in a 1948 survey of art critics and curators conducted by Look magazine, Marin was voted America's number-one artist, leading a group that included Max Weber, Stuart Davis, and Edward Hopper, among others (none of the yo