JOHN MARIN
The Circus I.
Color crayons on white wove paper, 1948. 253x318 mm; 10x12½ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right recto. Provenance: Edith Gregor Halpert, New York, with the "Halpert Collection" ink stamp on the frame back; The Downtown Gallery, New York, with the labels; Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York, with the label; Marlborough Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New York. Exhibited: "Arts of the Circus," The Dallas Museum of Contemporary Art, October 9-November 11, 1962, with the label.Marin (1870-1953) began to incorporate circus themes into his work in 1934, the figures often overwhelmed by whirring scenes surrounding them. During the 1940s, Marin's circus subjects were drawn from the point of view of a spectator looking down on the abstracted figures in the rings. While Marin's 1930s circus scenes contained hapless clowns and acrobats, usually disrobed in some form, his later works on the theme feature just a suggestion of human presence in a looser, more spontaneous style.