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John Henry Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné
An online catalogue by Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D., in collaboration with the Greenwich Historical Society

Catalogue Entry

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Keywords
OP.1410
White Dories
ca. 1900
Oil on panel
9 3/4 x 10 1/2 in. (24.8 x 26.7 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman
Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, Bequest of Candace C. Stimpson (1944.88)
Provenance
(American Art Galleries, New York, Twachtman estate sale, March 24, 1903, no. 75);
to (Cottier & Co., New York);
Babott Estate;
to James J. Kane, Brooklyn, New York;
to (Babcock, 1938);
to Norbert Heerman, 1939;
Candace C. Stimson;
bequest to present collection, 1944.
Exhibitions
1901 Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of the Works of John H. Twachtman, January 8–27, 1901, no. 25, as White Dories.
1901–I Durand-Ruel
Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, Paintings and Pastels by John H. Twachtman, March 4–16, 1901, as White Dories.
1901–I Cincinnati Art Museum
Cincinnati Art Museum, Exhibition of Sixty Paintings by Mr. John H. Twachtman, Formerly Resident in Cincinnati, April 12–May 16, 1901, no. 2, as White Dories.
1903–I American Art Galleries
American Art Galleries, New York, Sale of the Work of the Late John H. Twachtman, exhibition and auction, March 19–24, 1903, no. 75, as White Dories.
1966 Cincinnati Art Museum
Cincinnati Art Museum, John Henry Twachtman: A Retrospective Exhibition, October 7–November 20, 1966. (Exhibition catalogue: Baskett 1966); (Exhibition catalogue: Boyle 1966–I), no. 73, as White Dories, lent by the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts.
1981 Addison Gallery
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, American Impressionism, February 13–March 8, 1981, as White Dories.
Literature
New York Times 1901–I
"A Trio of Painters: Pictures by Three Americans in Three Fifth Avenue Galleries." New York Times, March 7, 1901, p. 8, as White Dories.
Sun 1903–II
"Twachtman Pictures, $16,610." Sun (New York), March 25, 1903, p. 5, as White Dories.
New York Times 1903–III
"Twachtman Picture Sale." New York Times, March 25, 1903, p. 5, as White Dories.
Hale 1957
Hale, John Douglass. "Life and Creative Development of John H. Twachtman." 2 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1957. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, 1958, vol. 2, p. 508 (catalogue G, no. 704), as White Dories. (Hale concordance).
Peters 1995
Peters, Lisa N. "John Twachtman (1853–1902) and the American Scene in the Late Nineteenth Century: The Frontier within the Terrain of the Familiar." 2 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, City University of New York, 1995. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International, 1996, vol. 1, p. 490; vol. 2, p. 1011 ill. in b/w (fig. 511), as White Dories.
Commentary

As in so many of the works Twachtman rendered in Gloucester in the summer of 1900, in White Dories he featured a view from East Gloucester’s Banner Hill, looking across the Inner Harbor to the city of Gloucester, which here appears suffused in fog and mist. The rooftops are farther below his vantage point than in Gloucester Harbor (OP.1403), and he winnowed the view with the foliage of a tree, as in Wild Cherry Tree (OP.1405). It is possible that the tree is the same one in Wild Cherry Tree and Gloucester (OP.1408), but with leaves that are now yellow due to seasonal change.

That Twachtman produced the painting in the fall is also suggested by the fact it is not depicted in the twenty-five charcoal sketches he rendered after works he created in Gloucester in the summer of 1900, which he sent to his son Alden (who was in Bemis, Maine, in the Rangeley Lakes, from late June through September). Twachtman may well have sent the drawings before he left Gloucester, at some point before his classes at the Art Students League began in early October and before his summer's output was complete. The painting's date can, nonetheless, be confirmed by its inclusion with its current title, in three of the artist’s four solo exhibitions held in 1901, in Chicago in January, New York in March, and Cincinnati in April–May. Notice was taken when the work was on view in New York. A New York Times reviewer stated: “Views of Gloucester, Mass., sparkle with distant waves and shine with colors on houses and ships as do ‘Captain Bickford's Float (OP.1415),’ and ‘East Gloucester,’ and ‘White Dories.’”

Purchased from Twachtman’s 1903 estate sale by Cottier & Co., New York, the painting was part of the bequest of Candace Catherine Stimpson (1869–1930), a granddaughter of the artist and design innovator Candace Wheeler (1827–1933) and the wife of surgeon Lewis Atterbury Stimpson (1844–1917), to its present collection in 1944.