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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Keywords
OP.1202
Niagara Falls
Alternate title: Niagara
ca. 1893–94
Oil on canvas
30 x 30 in. (76.2 x 76.2 cm)
Stamped lower right: Twachtman Sale [1903 estate sale]
Fayez Sarofim Collection
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. 98, as Niagara Falls.
1905 Knoedler
M. Knoedler & Co, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Pictures by John H. Twachtman, January 2–11, 1905, no. 17, as Niagara Falls.
1910 Lotos Club
Lotos Club, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by French and American Luminists, December 17, 1910 and following days, no. 41, as Niagara Falls, lent by Alexander Morten.
1913 New York School of Applied Design for Women
New York School of Applied Design for Women, Fifty Paintings by the Late John H. Twachtman, January 15–February 15, 1913, no. 35, as Niagara Falls, lent by Alexander Morten.
1913–I Albright Art Gallery
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, Paintings and Pastels by the Late John H. Twachtman, March 11–April 2, 1913, no. 26, as Niagara, lent by Alexander Morten, Esq.
1973 Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, American Impressionist and Realist Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz, April 19–June 3, 1973, no. 20, pp. 68–69 ill. in b/w, as Niagara Falls.
1985 Corcoran Gallery of Art
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Niagara: Two Centuries of Changing Attitudes, 1697–1901, September 21–November 24, 1985, no. 158, pp. 96 ill. in b/w, 97, as Niagara Falls. Traveled to: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, July 13–September 1, 1985; New-York Historical Society, January 27–April 27, 1986.
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. 41, as Niagara Falls. Traveled to: Cincinnati Art Museum, June 6–September 5, 1999; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, October 16, 1999–January 2, 2000.
Literature
Sun 1903–II
"Twachtman Pictures, $16,610." Sun (New York), March 25, 1903, p. 5, as Niagara Falls.
New York Times 1903–III
"Twachtman Picture Sale." New York Times, March 25, 1903, p. 5, as Niagara Falls.
Buffalo Evening News 1913
"Very Wide Range of Art in Coming Gallery Exhibits." Buffalo Evening News, March 8, 1913, as Niagara Falls.
Buffalo Morning Express 1913–I
"Gallery and Studio Chat: Twachtman's Art." Buffalo Express, March 17, 1913, as Niagara Falls.
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. 561 (catalogue A, no. 440), as Niagara Falls. (Hale concordance).
Gerdts 1984
Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. New York: Abbeville, 1984, p. 160 ill. in color, as Niagara Falls.
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, p. 363; vol. 2, p. 904 ill. in b/w (fig. 390), as Niagara Falls.
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. 131–32 ill. in color, as Niagara Falls.
Commentary

Twachtman appears to have visited Niagara Falls in the winter of 1893–94 and again in the summer of 1894. In this painting, the falls are free of ice and the mists suffusing them seem lofted by humid, warm air, indicating that this is a summertime view. As in his other Niagara scenes, Twachtman created two views of this subject, rendering it at different times of day. He seems to have captured this view in the morning sunlight; it is the counterpart of Niagara (OP.1203), rendered in more overcast conditions, perhaps in the afternoon. Both are on thirty-inch-square canvases and depict a view looking upward toward Niagara’s Bridal Veil Falls from the Cave of the Winds.[1] Creating two images of the same scene, Twachtman captured how the variability of atmospheric conditions influenced perception, resulting in very different works. Here the sunlight defines the rocks in the riverbed, while the falls, in a rainbow of colors, are set apart from the cooler tone of the sky. In Niagara, Twachtman emphasized the mists that suffuse and seemed to dissolve contours.

This painting was in Twachtman’s 1903 estate sale, as Niagara. It sold to “Miss F. Henderson” of New Orleans, whose identity is unknown. By 1910, it belonged to the prominent New York art collector Alexander Morten, who lent it to exhibitions in 1910 and 1913.

[1]This vantage point was accessible until 1920 when the rock fall made passage into the cave no longer safe.

Selected Literature

From Buffalo Evening News 1913

His two paintings of Niagara Falls will interest Buffalonians, for he has caught the thunderous majesty and the indescribable mist, clouds, and veils.

From Buffalo Express 1913

Two of the paintings are of Niagara Falls, one is of the Niagara gorge.  The elusive loveliness that escapes, like a breath of truth and poetry, from these pictures cannot be put into words without being fundamentally altered.  In these pictures, while the dramatic note is not missing, it seems subordinated to an astonishingly delicate vision.  Ethereal color and form seem to have been blown onto the canvas.  Never does one find an opaque shadow, a harsh edge, the pressure of a heavy hand.