John Henry Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné
An online catalogue by Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D., in collaboration with the Greenwich Historical Society
Print this page
« previous // return to Works // next »

Catalogue Entry

enlarge
Keywords
Exhibitions
1908–I Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts probably
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 103rd Annual Exhibition, January 20–February 29, 1908, no. 383, as Snow.
1908 Macbeth possibly
Macbeth Gallery, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by a Group of American Artists (Deceased), Copley to Whistler, March 11–24, 1908, no. 29, as Snow.
1908 Worcester Art Museum
Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, Eleventh Annual Summer Exhibition, Summer 1908, no. 81, as Snow, lent by Mrs. J. H. Twachtman.
1909 Worcester Art Museum
Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, Twelfth Annual Summer Exhibition, opened May 28, 1909, no. 27, as Snow, property of the museum.
1947 Milch
Milch Galleries, New York, Thirty-Eight Years on 57th Street, October 6–25, 1947, no. 18, as Snow, Coykendall Collection indicated in handwritten note in pencil.
1949 Milch
Milch Galleries, New York, Paintings by John H. Twachtman, November 14–December 3, 1949, no. 11, as Snow.
1952 Century Association
Century Association, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by Abbott Thayer and John H. Twachtman, March 5–May 4, 1952, as Snow, lent by Milch Galleries.
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. 70, as Snow, lent by Mr. and Mrs. Meyer P. Potamkin.
1972 William Penn Memorial Museum
William Penn Memorial Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, An Alumnus Salutes Dickinson College's 200th Anniversary, 1773–1973: From the Collection of Meyer and Vivian Potamkin, November 19, 1972–January 3, 1973, no. 150, as Snow.
1980 Henry Art Gallery
Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, American Impressionism, January 3–March 2, 1980, p. 158 ill. in b/w, as Snow. Traveled to: Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, March 9–May 4, 1980; Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, May 16–June 22, 1980; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, July 1–August 31, 1980.
1989–II National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., District of Columbia, John Twachtman: Connecticut Landscapes, October 15, 1989–January 28, 1990. (Exhibition catalogue: Chotner 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Pyne 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Peters 1989–I), no. 13, pl 101 ill. in color, as Snow. Traveled to: Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, March 18–May 20, 1990.
1999 High Museum of Art
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist, February 26–May 21, 2000. (Peters 1999–I), no. 32, as Snow. Traveled to: Cincinnati Art Museum, June 6–September 5, 1999; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, October 16, 1999–January 2, 2000.
2015 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, The Artist's Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, February 13–May 24, 2015, no. 61, p. 193, ill. in color, as Snow. Traveled to: Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia, June 16–September 6, 2015; Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, October 1, 2015–January 3, 2016; The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California, January 23–May 9, 2016; Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut, June 3–September 18, 2016.
Literature
Curran 1910
Curran, Charles C. "The Art of John H. Twachtman." Literary Miscellany 3 (Winter 1910), p. 75 ill. in b/w, as Snow.
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. 569 (catalogue A, no. 550), as Snow. (Hale concordance).
Gerdts 1980
Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. Seattle: Henry Art Gallery, 1980. Exhibition catalogue, p. 158 ill. in b/w, as Snow.
Peters 1989–I
Peters, Lisa N. "Twachtman's Greenwich Paintings: Context and Chronology." In John Twachtman: Connecticut Landscapes, by Deborah Chotner, Lisa N. Peters, and Kathleen A. Pyne. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1989. Exhibition catalogue (1989–II National Gallery of Art), p. 101 ill. in color, as Snow.
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, pp. 383, 497; vol. 2, p. 930 ill. in b/w (fig. 416), as Snow.
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), pp. 114, 120 ill. in color, as Snow.
Rosenbaum 2006
Rosenbaum, Julia B. Visions of Belonging: New England Art and the Making of American Identity. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University, 2006, p. 103 ill. in b/w, 104, as Snow.
Butler 2019
Butler, Eliza. "John Henry Twachtman and the Materiality of Snow." American Art 33 (Fall 2019), pp. 74 ill. in color, 75, 79, as Snow.
Peters 2020–I
Peters, Lisa N. "American Impressionism and the Discourse of Connoisseurship." In American Art: Collecting and Connoisseurship, Stephen M. Sessler, ed, p. 43 ill. in color, as Snow.
Commentary

As in other views of his barn in winter, Twachtman’s vantage point on this scene was presumably from his studio on the second floor of his Greenwich home, looking north over the root cellar to the barn and the hill that swept upward behind it. Within the square format of this canvas Twachtman designed a more geometric and structured composition than in his other views of this subject, giving the building a stable prominence. It stands out firmly against the snow-filled atmosphere, suggesting the domination of the inorganic over the natural that Twachtman achieved as he modified his property for aesthetic reasons over the years.

Snow remained in the collection of the artist’s wife until 1908. It was probably the work exhibited that year as Snow at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts annual and in a show of works by deceased artists at Macbeth Gallery in New York. It may have been these shows that brought the painting to the attention of the Worcester Art Museum, which purchased it through the artist’s estate’s agent Silas S. Dustin, also in 1908. The museum sold the painting in 1924. It was subsequently owned by Edward Coykendall (1872–1949), president of the Ulster & Delaware railroad. Milch Gallery purchased the painting from Coykendall’s estate and sold it in 1949 to the noted Philadelphia collectors Vivian and Meyer Potamkin by whose bequest it entered its current collection in 2003.