It is said that John Marin, from earliest boyhood, had the knack of shadowing a certain sense of motion on paper. However, it was not until he was almost thirty years old that he received any formal art training. After high school, he attended the Stevens Institute of Technology for a year, then drifted from job to job. It was decided by his father that he should become an architect, so he spent six frustrating years trying to gain stature in that profession.

Marin was already twenty-nine years old when his aunts, who raised him, admitted that he might as well go to art school since he seemed to be a failure at everything else. At the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where Marin studied for two years, neither the teaching ideas of Thomas Anschutz nor those of William Merritt Chase had a decisive influence on his work. Five years in Paris also seemed to leave a light mark on the direction his style was taking, according to Marin himself. Continued.......

Oil on canvas, 1930, sight 14" tall x 18" wide, frame 19 " tall x 23" wide

It is said that John Marin, from earliest boyhood, had the knack of shadowing a certain sense of motion on paper. However, it was not until he was almost thirty years old that he received any formal art training. After high school, he attended the Stevens Institute of Technology for a year, then drifted from job to job. It was decided by his father that he should become an architect, so he spent six frustrating years trying to gain stature in that profession.

Marin was already twenty-nine years old when his aunts, who raised him, admitted that he might as well go to art school since he seemed to be a failure at everything else. At the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where Marin studied for two years, neither the teaching ideas of Thomas Anschutz nor those of William Merritt Chase had a decisive influence on his work. Five years in Paris also seemed to leave a light mark on the direction his style was taking, according to Marin himself. Continued.......

Oil on canvas, 1952, sight 13 1/4" tall x 16 3/4" wide, frame 19 1/2" tall x 23" wide

This biography from the Archives of AskART:
A landscape painter, he did subjects that include desert landscapes, the Grand Canyon, and western genre.

He was born in Glencoe, Illinois, and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and in the East with William Merritt Chase, Frank Duveneck, and Charles Boutwood.

He is listed in the Smithsonian Institution Inventory of American Paintings as having painted the Grand Canyon around 1910. He also painted at Walpi on the Hopi Reservation and in the 1920s, painted Grand Canyon scenes for the Santa Fe Railroad.

From 1914, he lived in Pasadena, California, and had a studio there and also in Taos, New Mexico. In the 1930s, he painted in the Austrian Tyrol where he became a resident for a short time. He died in Los Angeles on July 12, 1946.

Theresa Bernstein
Born 1895
5” x 8” (sight) 11 ¼” x 14” (frame)

This biography from the Archives of AskART: Born in Philadelphia, Theresa Bernstein showed art talent front childhood and became an early female modernist painter whose reputation faded during the era of the New York School but ascended in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Of modernist art, she said: "I couldn't warm up to cubes and triangles-they didn't have enough life for me". (Sternberg 21)

In April, 2000, the Joan Whalen Fine Art Gallery in New York City held a well-received exhibition titled "Theresa Bernstein: An Early Modernist." This exhibitions feature at the opening reception was Bernstein's book titled "Rabbitville," a collection of drawings and stories the artist started in the 1930s to entertain children who posed for her.

In 1907, Bernstein enrolled in the Philadelphia School of Design for Women where she studied with Harriet Sartain, Elliott Daingerfield, Henry Snell, Daniel Garber, and Samuel Murray. In 1912, she settled in New York, and her early work was "Ashcan" School or Social Realist style, but she became known for impressionist, "frolicking" beach scenes.

She exhibited extensively with the National Academy of Design, (but never was elected a member), and the Society of Independent Artists and was a charter member of the New York Society of Women Artists. Her husband was artist, William Meyerwitz, and they summered in Gloucester where she completed many of her beach scenes.

Her work is in the permanent collections of the Chicago Art Institute; Butler Institute of Amer. Art; Dallas museum; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Harvard University; Whitney Museum of Amer. Art; Boston Public Library and N.Y. Historical Society.

Source: Paul Sternberg, Sr., "Art by American Women" ARTnews, October 2000

Dana Bartlett (American 1878-1957) This biography from the Archives of AskART: Dana Bartlett is known for his landscapes and plein-air views of California and the Southwest. In 1922, he served as President of the California Art Club, and he was founder and the first president of the California Watercolor Society.

Born in Ionia, Michigan in 1882, Bartlett moved to New York City to study at the Art Students' League. There he studied under William Merritt Chase and Charles Warren Eaton.

For a short time Bartlett had a studio in Boston before moving to Portland, Oregon, where he worked as a commercial artist for the Foster-Kleiser Company. He then relocated to California, and briefly had a studio in San Francisco before finally settling in Los Angeles in 1915. In 1921 he had the opportunity to show his work with a select group of fourteen artists at the first California Watercolor Society exhibition, and later become president of that Society. He held a solo exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1927, and soon after opened his own gallery featuring work of local artists as well as his own.

He was an accomplished watercolorist whose decorative style embodies the California 'Eucalyptus School', however he painted many nocturnes, landscapes, and scenes from his travels in Europe. He contributed greatly to his local art community and taught at he Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles during his career. His works are held in many museums, including the Laguna Beach Museum of Art, and the Huntington Library, San Marino.

Dana Bartlett died on July 3, 1957 in Los Angeles, California Source: Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"

Arizona desert-near Hope
37"wide X 32"high - Oil on board

Ernest Fiene (American 1894-1966) Ernst Fiene was born in Elberfield, Germany in 1878 and died in Paris in 1965. Studied at the National Academy of design, Art Students League and the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design. Exhibited, won awards and is included in many of the most prestigious museums in the country.

Clarinet player
Oil on canvas, 24" x 18" sight