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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.514
Landscape near Cincinnati
Alternate title: Landscape
ca. 1882
Oil on canvas
35 x 46 in. (88.9 x 116.8 cm)
Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica (58.9)
Provenance
Alexander Morten;
(Macbeth, 1913)
to (American Art Association, New York, May 9–11, 1916, lot 175);
to W. W. Seaman, agent, or John C. Cowdin;
(Rehn Gallery, New York);
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1931;
to (Knoedler, 1957);
to present collection, 1958.
Exhibitions
1913 New York School of Applied Design for Women
New York School of Applied Design for Women, Fifty Paintings by the Late John H. Twachtman, January 15–February 15, 1913, no. 34, as Landscape, lent by Macbeth Galleries.
1913–I Albright Art Gallery
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, Paintings and Pastels by the Late John H. Twachtman, March 11–April 2, 1913, no. 25, as Landscape, lent by Macbeth Galleries.
1915–I Detroit Institute
Detroit Institute, Exhibition of American Art from the Macbeth Gallery, New York, February 4–24, 1915, no. 32, as Landscape.
1932 Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Summer Exhibition Commencing May Third Nineteen-Thirty-Two. A Selection of Paintings, Drawings, and Prints from the Permanent Collection, Summer 1932, no. 30, as Landscape.
1935 M. H. de Young Memorial Museum
M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, Exhibition of American Painting, June 7–July 7, 1935, no. 223, ill. in b/w, as Landscape.
1937 Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland Museum of Art, American Painting From 1860 until Today, June 23–October 4, 1937, no. 198, as Landscape, lent by the Whitney Museum of American Art.
1938 Springfield Museum of Fine Art
Springfield Museum of Fine Art, Massachusetts, A Century of American Landscape Painting, March 8–28, 1938, no. 60, as Landscape, lent by The Whitney Museum of American Art.
1939 Carnegie Institute
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, A Century of American Landscape Painting, March 22–April 30, 1939, no. 73, as Landscape, lent by the Whitney Museum of American Art.
1940 Carnegie Institute
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Survey of American Painting, October 24–December 15, 1940, no. 164, ill. in b/w (plate 52), as Landscape.
1943 Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Romantic Painting in America, November 17, 1943–February 6, 1944, no. 197, as Landscape, lent by Whitney Museum of American Art.
1957 Carnegie Institute
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, American Classics of the Nineteenth Century, October 18–December 1, 1957, no. 100, as Landscape, lent by Knoedler Galleries, New York. Traveled to: Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, January 5–26, 1958; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, February 14–March 16, 1958; Baltimore Museum of Art, April 8–May 4, 1958; Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire, May 22–June 25, 1958.
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. 19, as Landscape, lent by the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica.
1982 Herbert F. Johnson Museum
Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, Golden Day, Silver Night, Perceptions of Nature in American Art 1850–1910, February 3–March 28, 1982, no. 51, pp. 98–99 ill. in b/w, as Landscape.
Literature
American Art Association 1916
Valuable Ancient and Modern Paintings. Auction catalogue. May 9–11, 1916. New York: American Art Association, 1916, lot 175 ill. in b/w, as Landscape.
Tucker 1931
Tucker, Allen. John H. Twachtman. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1931, pp. 54–55 ill. in b/w, as Landscape.
Saint Gaudens 1941
Saint Gaudens, Homer. The American Artist and His Times. New York: Dodd, 1941, ill. in b/w (plate 38), as Landscape.
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. 558 (catalogue A, no. 335), as Landscape. (Hale concordance).
Boyle 1979
Boyle, Richard. John Twachtman. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1979, pp. 30–31 ill. in color, as Landscape.
Boyle 1980
Boyle, Richard. "John Henry Twachtman: Tone Poems on Canvas." Antiques World 3 (December 1980), pp. 66 ill. in color, 67, as Landscape.
Schweizer 1989
Schweizer, Paul D. Masterworks of American Art from the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1989, pp. 86–87 ill. in color, as Landscape.
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. 161; vol. 2, p. 695 ill. in b/w (fig. 156), as Landscape.
Peters 1999–I
Peters, Lisa N. John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist. Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 1999. Exhibition catalogue (1999 High Museum of Art), p. 56 ill. in b/w, as Landscape near Cincinnati.
Commentary

Along with Dark Trees, Cincinnati (OP.513), this painting represents a type of middle ground landscape to which Twachtman gravitated in the early 1880s when he was living in the Cincinnati suburb of Avondale, characterized by settings that are pristine but not wilderness, representing approachable places with human-scaled proportions. Burnet Woods, adjacent to Avondale, was such a locale in Cincinnati, a ninety-acre tract of land purchased by the city in 1875 to form a public park. Although its site is unknown, Landscape near Cincinnati suggests Twachtman's desire to capture the experience, spearheaded by Central Park in New York, of the era's broad American urban park movement, meant to bring respite from the stress of cities in the creation of calming zones of natural beauty within the urban context. In this work, a diagonal line of rocks and trees defines a sun-streaked lawn that opens outward in the foreground, making it seem that a viewer could step directly into the scene.  

Selected Literature

From Boyle 1979

The thinner, more freely flowing brushwork [in the work] does seem to lean more in the direction of his studies in France the following year than in his past sojourn in the Bavarian capital.  As such, and because of its significant size and stylistic quality, Landscape represents an important transition in Twachtman's development and another serious step closer to that personal and modified impressionist style for which he ultimately became famous [pp. 30–31].