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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.1002
Frozen Brook
Alternate title: The Frozen Brook
ca. 1890s
Oil on canvas
22 1/2 x 20 1/2 in. (57.2 x 52.1 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman; Stamped lower left: Twachtman Sale [1903 estate sale]
Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, Bequest of Mr. Clifford Smith, 1985 (85.4.3)
Provenance
(American Art Galleries, New York, Twachtman estate sale, March 24, 1903, no. 58);
to Edward A. Rorke, Brooklyn;
through (Silas S. Dustin, New York, November 1918);
to (Vose, 1919);
to Harry W. Jones, 1919;
Clifford Smith, Portland, Maine, 1940;
bequest to present collection, 1985.
Exhibitions
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. 58, as The Frozen Brook.
Literature
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. 448 (catalogue G, nos. 187 and 192), as Frozen Brook. (Hale concordance).
Chotner 1989
Chotner, Deborah. "Twachtman and the American Winter Landscape." 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. 71 ill. in b/w, as Frozen Brook.
Pyne 1989
Pyne, Kathleen A. "John Twachtman and the Therapeutic Landscape." 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. 55, as Frozen Brook.
Belanger 2000
Belanger, Pamela. Maine in America: American Art at the Farnsworth Art Museum. Rockland, Me.: Farnsworth Art Museum, 2000, pp. 90–91 ill. in color, as Frozen Brook.
Commentary

Depicting a windswept hillside, where only patches of snow remain, Frozen Brook evokes the desolate feeling between the chill of winter and the transition to spring. Twachtman rendered this view of the rolling countryside on his Greenwich property from below and tilted his picture plane forward for a sense of immediacy.

This painting’s title derives from the artist's 1903 estate sale. At the lower left, the stamp, once red, has been reinforced with gray paint. From the sale, the painting was purchased by the amateur Brooklyn artist, Edward A. Rorke, one of its major purchasers. In 1919, the painting was sold by Silas S. Dustin, the agent for Twachtman’s estate, to Vose Galleries.