45. John Marin
(1870-1953)

Meaux Cathedral (first version)

(click on image to print)
Marin, Meaux Cathedral

Meaux Cathedral (first version)

Etching, 1907, 224 x 168 mm., Zigrosser 75 i/ii, edition about 25. Superb impression of the rare first version of the subject (the second version, a near replica, was published in GBA), printed in brownish ink with varied plate tone on laid japan paper with full margins, signed in pencil. No impression has been on the market for many years. Although this particular print is far from the best example, perhaps no artist absorbed the late Whistlerian etching style and touch as effortlessly and successfully as Marin - and he knew the man only through his work, having first travelled to Europe in 1905 when Whistler was already dead. With Marin, the style seemed to come naturally: he saw the way Whistler saw, drew the way he drew and etched the way he etched. When he later went on to other things, he did so as part of the natural evolution of a personal style and not at all as a rejection of a former influence.