Marine

The painting is inscribed to Ryder's close friend John Robinson, a sea captain the artist met in 1883 through his dealer, Daniel Cottier. According to Robinson, when his ship was in port in New York, on-board dinner parties with the artist and others became "a recognized custom." Ryder made two transatlantic voyages with Robinson at the helm. On the first one, in 1887, Ryder spent time "studying cloud effects and the movements of the waves in all their various moods." The second voyage, in 1896, was taken in an effort to cure the artist's "low nervous condition." "Marine" may have been initiated during one of these trips, the implied point of view being from vessel. "Marine" verges on abstraction. The artist adopted a tight, close-up approach and focused on the turbulent sky and ocean churning under the effects of a storm. The line formed by the horizon is the painting's only quiet note, and is painted smoothly and evenly. Ryder scraped down the top paint layer so that the dark undercoating would show through, thus creating the impression that the surface of the picture is transparent. In "Marine," nature served as a catalyst for Ryder's expressive method of execution. He once remarked, "I saw nature springing into life upon my dead canvas. It was better than nature, for it was vibrating with the thrill of new creation."