The Little Maple Tree, Castorland, New York

Following his formative experience at the Armory Show of 1913, John Marin spent the summer and fall of that year in Castorland, New York, where he produced a small and important body of work, likely including the present painting. According to Klaus Kertess, "Cubism and the city were left behind, and the brighter palette that had begun to push through...the previous year was keyed into a Fauvist fanfare...The configuration of these paintings—shallow foreground topped with a wall of foliage and tree forms spreading across most of the canvas—and the frequent dominance of intense primary hues are closely related to the landscapes Matisse painting in 1904-05...His bold incorporation of bare canvas, appropriated from his watercolors via the Fauves, breathes light and lightness into the paint." (Marin in Oil, exhibition catalogue, Southampton, New York, 1987, p. 33)