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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Spring Freshet, Late 1890s (OP.1135). OP.1135, Spring Freshet, detail with signature.
OP.1135, Spring Freshet, detail with signature.
Keywords
OP.1135
Spring Freshet
Late 1890s
Oil on canvas
18 1/4 x 22 1/4 in. (46.4 x 56.5 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman–
Location unknown
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. 27, as Spring Freshet.
1907–I Lotos Club
Lotos Club, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by the Late John H. Twachtman, January 5–31, 1907, no. 3, as Spring Freshet.
Literature
New-York Tribune 1903–II
"Twachtman Pictures, $16,610: Former Pupils Applaud Sales of Favorite Canvases." New-York Tribune, March 25, 1903, p. 9, as Spring Freshet.
New York Times 1903–III
"Twachtman Picture Sale." New York Times, March 25, 1903, p. 5, as Spring Freshet.
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. 550 (catalogue A, no. 182), as Spring Freshet. (Hale concordance).
Peters 1990–I
Peters, Lisa N. "John H. Twachtman: The Torrent." In Ten American Painters, by William H. Gerdts, et al. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 1990. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 167–68 ill. in b/w, as Spring Freshet.
Christie's, New York 2018–I
American Art Online. Auction catalogue, May 15, 2018. New York: Christie's, 2018, lot 172 ill. in color, as Spring Freshet.
Commentary

This painting depicts a view looking northwest on Twachtman’s Greenwich property and features Horseneck Brook and its falls fanning out over the countryside during the early spring. “freshet” as used here, refers to a flood resulting from heavy rain or melted snow. In the scene, the trees are still bare, making the shape of the neighbors’ house clearly visible, to the west of the falls. Another house  at the hillcrest can be seen behind it. (Twachtman also featured both buildings in The End of Winter, OP.1004.) In keeping with a time when winter has only recently retreated, the land has not yet returned to life, and Twachtman used the bare canvas, covered in a thin umber-ocher ground, to convey the raw, moist earth.

Spring Freshet was included with its present title in Twachtman’s 1903 estate, from which it sold to the Ohio-born attorney William H. Bliss (1844–1932). Bliss lent the painting to the exhibition of Twachtman’s work, held at the Lotos Club in 1907. After Bliss’s death the painting was inherited by his son Robert Woods Bliss (1875–1962) and Robert’s wife Mildred Barnes Bliss (1879–1969). Along with Mildred, Robert Woods Bliss, a diplomat, philanthropist, and art collector, founded Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C., which they gave to Harvard in 1940. The painting was sold for Dumbarton Oaks by Hirschl & Adler in 1976 to a private collector in 1976.