John Henry Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné
An online catalogue by Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D., in collaboration with the Greenwich Historical Society
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Emerald Pool, Yellowstone, ca. 1895 (OP.1311). Fig. 1. The Emerald Pool, Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, June 2022
Fig. 1. The Emerald Pool, Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, June 2022
Image: Lisa N. Peters
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Keywords
OP.1311
Emerald Pool, Yellowstone
ca. 1895
Oil on canvas
25 1/4 x 30 1/4 in. (64.1 x 76.8 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman–
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, Bequest of George A. Gay, by exchange, and the Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection (1979.162)
Exhibitions
1934 Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Landscape Paintings, May 14–September 30, 1934, no. 78, as Emerald Pool, Yellowstone.
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. 77, p. 29 ill. in b/w, as Emerald Pool, Yellowstone, lent by Milch Galleries, New York.
1980 Henry Art Gallery
Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, American Impressionism, January 3–March 2, 1980, p. 67 ill. in color, as Emerald Pool, Yellowstone. 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.
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. 42, pp. 131, 133 ill. in color, as Emerald Pool, Yellowstone. Traveled to: Cincinnati Art Museum, June 6–September 5, 1999; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, October 16, 1999–January 2, 2000.
2014–15 Terra Foundation for American Art
Terra Foundation for American Art, Musée des impressionnismes Giverny, Giverny, France, American Impressionism: A New Vision, 1880–1900, March 28–June 29, 2014. (Bourguignon 2014), as Emerald Pool, Yellowstone. Traveled to: National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, July 19–October 19, 2014; Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, November 4, 2014–February 1, 2015.
Literature
Gerdts 1980
Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. Seattle: Henry Art Gallery, 1980. Exhibition catalogue, p. 67 ill. in color, as Emerald Pool, Yellowstone.
Ballinger 1981
Ballinger, James. Faces and Moods of the American West (January 1981), pp. 46-47 ill. in color, as Emerald Pool, Yellowstone.
Trenton and Hassrick 1983
Trenton, Patricia, and Peter Hassrick. The Rocky Mountains: A Vision for Artists in the Nineteenth Century. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1983, pp. 340, 330 ill. in color, as Emerald Pool, Yellowstone.
Gerdts 1984
Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. New York: Abbeville, 1984, pp. 160 ill. in color, 161, as Emerald Pool, Yellowstone.
Spencer 1989
Spencer, Harold. "Connecticut's Art and Artists, (1880–1920)." In Connecticut Masters, Connecticut Treasures. Hartford, Conn.: Wadsworth Atheneum, 1989, p. 19 ill. in b/w, as Emerald Pool, Yellowstone.
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), pp. 33 ill. in b/w, 35, as Emerald Pool, Yellowstone.
Bolger 1990
Bolger, Doreen. "American Artists and the Japanese Print: J. Alden Weir, Theodore Robinson, and John H. Twachtman." In American Art around 1900: Lectures in Memory of Daniel Fraad, ed. Doreen Bolger. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1990, pp. 20, 22 ill. in b/w, as Emerald Pool, Yellowstone.
Weinberg, Bolger, and Curry 1994
Weinberg, H. Barbara, Doreen Bolger, and David Park Curry. American Impressionism and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885–1915. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 63–64 ill. in color, as Emerald Pool, Yellowstone.
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. 374-75; vol. 2, p. 920 ill. in b/w (fig. 406), as Emerald Pool, Yellowstone.
Kornhauser 1996
Kornhauser, Elizabeth. American Paintings before 1945 in the Wadsworth Atheneum, 2 vols. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996, vol. 1 p. 39; vol. 2 pp. 763–64, ill. in color (plate 135), as Emerald Pool, Yellowstone.
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. 131, 133 ill. in color, as Emerald Pool, Yellowstone.
Bourguignon 2014
Bourguignon, Katherine M. American Impressionism: A New Vision 1880–1900. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014. Exhibition catalogue (2014–15 Terra Foundation for American Art), p. 130 ill. in color, as Emerald Pool, Yellowstone.
Hassrick 2015
Hassrick, Peter H. Drawn to Yellowstone: Artists in America's First National Park. Cody, Wyoming: Buffalo Bill Center of the West, 2015, pp. 105–6 ill. in color, as Emerald Pool, Yellowstone.
Peters 2024
Peters, Lisa N. "John Twachtman: An American Impressionist's Yellowstone." Montana: The Magazine of Western History 74 (Autumn 2024), pp. 12 ill. in color, 18, as Emerald Pool, Yellowstone.
Commentary

Located in the Black Sand Basin in Yellowstone's Upper Geyser Basin, just to the west of Old Faithful, the Emerald Pool is one of the most jewel-like thermal features in the park. Here the warm water allows algae and bacteria to produce the pool’s rich range of turquoise and ultramarine tones. Around the pool is a white calcium rim. Standing near the pool's edge, Twachtman was probably looking north across its surface (fig. 1). It seems likely that he rendered his other view of this pool, Edge of the Emerald Pool (OP.1313) on the same day, depicting it from the opposite vantage point and cropping the pool more dramatically in the composition and shrouding it more in steam. 

Here he juxtaposed the water's opalescence with the reflective surface of the obsidian ground cover. in this closely cropped image, Twachtman created a modernist conception of his scene by a strong forward tilt of his picture plane and a monumental rendering of the varied blues within the depths of the quiet thermal pool. 

This painting was among Twachtman's Yellowstone works owned by William A. Wadsworth, the wealthy descendant of an illustrious Connecticut family, who provided the funding for the artist's trip to the Wyoming park.

Selected Literature

From Kornhauser 1996

In Emerald Pool, Twachtman demonstrated exquisite handling of the sun-touched mists and the transparent green surface of the sulfur spring. Employing techniques characteristic of Impressionism, he used a lighter and brighter palette and loose airy brushstrokes that allow the canvas to show through. His flattening of natural forms into abstract shapes and sinuous outlines suggests a contemporary Art Nouveau aesthetic and reflects the artist's interest in Japanese art.