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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.1201
Horseshoe Falls, Niagara
Alternate titles: Horseshoe Falls, Niagara—Afternoon; Niagara; Niagara Falls
ca. 1893–94
Oil on canvas
30 1/4 x 25 3/8 in. (76.8 x 64.4 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman–
Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York, Littlejohn Collection (1959.5.15)
Provenance
(Macbeth, by 1918);
Philip Ehrenpreis, by 1937;
(Parke-Bernet, New York, March 24, 1938, lot 75A);
Mr. Klein;
to (Milch, by 1938);
to (David B. Findlay Galleries, New York, by 1952);
(Milch, by 1959);
Mrs. Robert Littlejohn, Southampton, New York;
gift to present collection, 1959.
Exhibitions
1894 National Academy of Design
National Academy of Design, New York, Sixty-Ninth Annual Exhibition, April 2–May 12, 1894, no. 397, as Horseshoe Falls, Niagara—Afternoon.
1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition
Department of Fine Arts, San Francisco, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, February 20–December 4, 1915, no. 4052, as Niagara.
1938 Milch
Milch Galleries, New York, Selected Paintings by American Artists, Summer 1938, no. 3, as Horseshoe Falls, Niagara.
1942–I Babcock
Babcock Galleries, New York, Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels by John H. Twachtman, February 9–28, 1942, no. 15, as Horseshoe Falls, Niagara.
1943 Ferargil Galleries probably
Ferargil Galleries, New York, American Paintings, July 19–September 15, 1943, no. 5, as Horseshoe Falls, Niagara.
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. 58, as Horseshoe Falls, Niagara, lent by the Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York.
1977 Art Museum of South Texas
Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, The Ten, November 11–December 31, 1977, p. 43 ill. in b/w, as Horseshoe Falls, Niagara.
1982 Coe-Kerr Gallery
Coe-Kerr Gallery, New York, American Paintings from the Parrish Art Museum, December 1–18, 1982, no. 37, p. 31 ill. in color, as Horseshoe Falls, Niagara.
1990 Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation
Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation, Villa Favorita, Lugano-Castagnola, Switzerland, Masterworks of American Impressionism, July 22–October 28, 1990, no. 32, pp. 86–87 ill. in color, 157–58, as Horseshoe Falls, Niagara.
1991 Nassau County Museum of Art
Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York, Landscape of America: The Hudson River School to Abstract Expressionism, November 10, 1991–January 9, 1992, pp. 34, ill. in/ b/w, 77, as Horseshoe Falls, Niagara.
Literature
Comstock 1894
Comstock, Samuel M. "New York Letter: The Spring Academy Exhibition." Hartford Courant, April 10, 1894, p. 10, as Horseshoe Falls, Niagara.
New York Evening Post 1894–II
"Academy of Design: An Account of Pictures to be seen at the Spring Exhibition." New York Evening Post, April 3, 1894, p. 7, as Horseshoe Falls, Niagara—Afternoon.
New York Times 1894–IV
"Academy Prices and Prizes: Paintings of Style and Landscape at the Spring Exhibition." New York Times, April 9, 1894, p. 2, as Horseshoe Falls, Niagara—Afternoon.
Laurvik 1915
Laurvik, J. Nilsen. "Evolution of American Painting as Exemplified in the International Exhibition of Fine Arts in the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco." Century 90 (September 1915), p. 785, as Niagara.
Parke-Bernet 1938–II
Barbizon Paintings and American Historical Paintings. Auction catalogue, March 24, 1938. New York: Parke-Bernet, 1938, lot 75A ill. in b/w, as Horseshoe Falls, Niagara.
Antiques 1952
"Shop Talk." Antiques 62 (July 1952), p. 266 ill. in b/w, as Horseshoe Falls, Niagara.
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. 562 (catalogue A, no. 441), as Horseshoe Falls, Niagara. (Hale concordance).
Gerdts 1990–II
Gerdts, William H. Masterworks of American Impressionism. Lugano-Castagnola, Switzerland: Fondazione Thyssen-Bornemisza, 1990. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 86–87 ill. in color, 157–58, as Horseshoe Falls, Niagara.
Peters 1998
Peters, Lisa N. "John Henry Twachtman: River Scene with Pier, ca. 1893." In Twelve American Masterpieces. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 1998, pp. 56–56 ill. in b/w, as Horseshoe Falls, Niagara.
Peters 1999–II
Peters, Lisa N. "Niagara in Winter." In New Britain Museum of American Art I: Highlights of the Collection. Munich: Prestel, 1999, pp. 162–63, as Horseshoe Falls, Niagara.
Commentary

In his Niagara scenes, Twachtman tended to depict the same scene twice, at different times of day, capturing changes in light, atmosphere, and form that occurred over time. This painting is thus the afternoon version of the scene he rendered in Niagara in Winter (OP.1200), probably a late morning view, where the direct sunlight reflects off of the ice in the foreground, infusing the chilled mists and spray at the base of the partially frozen falls. The images are on canvases of roughly the same size and both depict Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, but the two works are quite different. Niagara in Winter is more dynamic, conveying the way that the sun had a softening and glowing impact as if to loosen the grip of winter on the falls. Here, as the daylight begins to fade, the ice seems harder in the foreground and the falls more inert.

In the 1894 spring annual of the National Academy of Design, it was undoubtedly this painting that Twachtman exhibited as Horseshoe Falls, Niagara—Afternoon. Described by the critics as a winter scene, the work could only have been either this work or Niagara in Winter, but the “Afternoon” in the title narrows it down to being this painting that was featured. Several reviewers took notice of it. A critic for the New York Evening Post wrote that Twachtman had shown “a view of Niagara that has a feeling of the rush of the cataract about it, and is, in addition, distinguished and individual in color.” The reviewer for the New York Times stated: “Among the landscapes that catch the eye on a second round of the Academy exhibition is the ‘Niagara in Winter’ by John H. Twachtman, a partial view of the Horseshoe taken in the afternoon. It rivals in beauty and delicate touch his ‘Winter,’ at the society’s show.” A writer named Samuel M. Comstock reported in the Hartford Courant: "J. H. Twachtman is known as an impressionist, whose work at times is a little vague, but if his 'Horseshoe Falls—Niagara" is a good sample of impressionistic work, we say, let us have more of it. The purity of tone with which he has treated the falls, the snow covered foreground, the dying spray, make an exceedingly restful thing for the eye, in connection with the beauty of line wherewith the picture is treated."

The painting appears to have remained in the artist's estate, and it was probably Martha Twachtman who lent it to the Panama-Pacific Exposition of 1915 with the title of Niagara, where it hung in the room devoted to Twachtman's work (Gallery 93), perhaps next to Niagara in Winter.