Marguerite Zorach was one of the first American artists to embrace abstract art, yet she remains overshadowed by her artist husband, William.  Marguerite studied in Paris between 1908 and 1911, a critical time when aesthetic innovation was challenging artistic tradition. She quickly absorbed the lessons of a radical new art that was grounded in seeing the world anew through geometric shapes and raw, vibrant colors. The works she produced during the 1910s are deeply indebted to her appreciation of this rebellious modern art, and Forest’s Edge is no exception.

          The picture presents a view of Plainfield, New Hampshire—a town on the border of Vermont where Marguerite and her husband spent the summer and fall of 1917. “Marguerite did a series of watercolors of the woods,” William recalled, “pictures that analyzed the colors and forms around her and built them into new combinations.” Marguerite chose to eliminate any sense of illusionism to depict the rural area. Instead, she reduced the trees, ground, and buildings to basic configurations, and built the composition from interlocking areas of muted and saturated colors.

October, 2020