AFA Summer 2020

2020 Antiques & Fine Art 75 John Marin’s figure study is unique among the portraits of Taos pueblo children and unique within the artist’s oeuvre. It was painted during Marin’s second of three summer visits. It’s unusual both for its large, double-sheet dimensions and for being the artist’s only known watercolor portrait of a Taos Pueblo member. Marin’s style evolved in Taos, where he added internal hexagonal framing similar to the central field in Navajo rugs, or, as in the case of this work, where he employed an outline in the manner of a saint in a Hispano retablo , or devotional painting. The piece was probably painted indoors, and its subject wears a dress the color of sunshine, classic white buckskin moccasins, and a fur robe. John Marin (American, 1870–1953), Taos Indian Girl, 1930. Watercolor and graphite on paper, 26½ x 17¾ inches.