Nudes in the Forest

c. 1940

Dating: Approximate date range
Held at: Art Institute of Chicago
Medium: Watercolor and graphite on tan wove paper
Dimensions: 14 × 20.4 cm (5 9/16 × 8 1/16 in.)
Collection no.: 2010.350
Attribution: By the artist

About this artwork

Nudes in the Forest — John Marin. c. 1940.

Medium: Watercolor and graphite on tan wove paper. Dimensions: 14 × 20.4 cm (5 9/16 × 8 1/16 in.).

Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

Marin’s nudes have been described as his response to the nude bathers of European modernists, principally Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso. Yet they were also highly personal symbolic fantasies. Marin referred to his nude models as “real angels” and added, almost protectively, “My clotheless ladies are so camouflaged with the landscape or seascape.” In this painted sketchbook sheet, Marin enclosed his female figures in a protective space that he filled with greenery, trees, and other natural symbols.

Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.

Location checked Sep 10, 2026. This does not indicate whether the work is on display.

Artwork sources