Immanuel Church, New Castle, Delaware: Distant View

1931

John Marin

Associated Names
John Marin
Painter, American, 1870 - 1953
The image presents a slightly elevated view of a church with a tall spire. The church dominates the scene, with loose and expressive brushstrokes indicating movement. Colors include browns, creams, and greys for the church, blues and whites for the sky, and reddish-brown for nearby structures and trees. A stone wall forms a base at the front of the image. Details are slightly blurred due to an impressionistic technique blending architectural elements with the environment.
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In 1931 John Marin completed four views from the town green of New Castle, Delaware: View from the Green; Third Street; Immanuel Church: Close View; and Immanuel Church, New Castle, Delaware: Distant View. Historic buildings and homes, some dating as early as the 17th and 18th centuries, made the town a tourist destination. Marin painted these small works quickly. His active brushwork enlivens the historic structures, which he framed with trees and sky. Trained as an architect, Marin has carefully depicted architectural details of the town’s buildings while abstracting the natural elements of the scenes.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas on cardboard

  • Credit Line

    Gift of John Marin, Jr.

  • Dimensions

    overall: 45.3 x 35.8 cm (17 13/16 x 14 1/8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1986.54.7

More About this Artwork

This nearly square painting shows an industrial area with buildings, storage silos, a smokestack, and railroad tracks. A mound of brown dirt or other material is in shadow in the lower left corner of the painting. Next to the mound, railroad tracks extend diagonally from the lower center of the painting into the distance to our right. The tracks end at a white building with staggered gray rooflines to our right in the distance. A tall terracotta-red smokestack rises high beyond the white building, smoke pouring out of its top and blending into the clouds above. Just beyond the mound of dirt, piles of white material, perhaps in unseen bins, line the railroad track to our left and lead back to a row ten interconnected, coral-orange silos. The horizon comes about halfway up the painting, and it is lined with a row of long white and gray warehouses. The artist signed and dated the work with brown paint in the lower right corner: “Sheeler 31.”

Scholarly Series:  American Paintings, 1900–1945

Scholarly Article:  American Paintings, 1900–1945: Immanuel Church, New Castle, Delaware: Distant View, 1931

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist [1870-1953]; his estate; by inheritance to his son, John C. Marin, Jr. [1914-1988], Cape Split, Maine; gift 1986 to NGA.

Associated Names

Bibliography

1970

  • Reich, Sheldon. John Marin: A Stylistic Analysis and Catalogue Raisonné. Tucson, 1970: no. 31.28.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 232, repro.

Inscriptions

lower right: Marin 31; upper left and upper center reverse: (Old Swedish Church, New Castle, Delaware) 1931 / 18 x 14 SR#175[the "175" crossed out] 31.28; upper right reverse: NBM 2/21[or 27?]/84; center right reverse, upside down: 5201 / [illegible]

Wikidata ID

Q20192863

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