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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Last Touch of Sun, ca. 1892–93 (OP.908). Fig. 1. Claude Monet, The Artist’s Garden at Vétheuil, 1881, oil on canvas, 39 3/8 x 31 ½ in., private collection.
Fig. 1. Claude Monet, The Artist’s Garden at Vétheuil, 1881, oil on canvas, 39 3/8 x 31 ½ in., private collection.
Image: © Christie's Images Limited
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Keywords
OP.908
Last Touch of Sun
ca. 1892–93
Oil on canvas
25 1/8 x 30 in. (63.8 x 76.2 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman
Private collection
Exhibitions
1893 American Art Galleries
American Art Galleries, New York, Paintings, Pastels, and Etchings by J. Alden Weir, J. H. Twachtman, Claude Monet, and Paul Albert Besnard, by May 4–mid-November 1893, no. 3, as Last Touch of Sun.
1893 St. Botolph Club
St. Botolph Club, Boston, Exhibition of Oil Paintings by Messrs. Weir and Twachtman, November 27–December 9, 1893, no. 14, as Last Touch of Sun.
1894 St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts
St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts, Eleventh Annual Exhibition, Fall 1894, no. 464, as Last Touch of Sun.
1894 Art Association of Indianapolis
Art Association of Indianapolis, Eleventh Annual Exhibit of Paintings, May 14–June 2, 1894, no. 120, as Last Touch of Sun.
1897 Carnegie Institute
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Second Annual International Exhibition, November 4, 1897–January 1, 1898, no. 223, as Last Touch of Sun.
1898 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Sixty-Seventh Annual Exhibition, January 10–February 22, 1898, no. 442, as Last Touch of Sun.
1989–I National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., American Paintings from the Manoogian Collection, June 4–September 4, 1989, no. 68, pp. 182–83 ill. in color, as Last Touch of Sun. Traveled to: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, September 23–November 26, 1989; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, December 18–February 25, 1989; Detroit Institute of Arts, March 27–May 27, 1990.
1990 Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation
Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation, Villa Favorita, Lugano-Castagnola, Switzerland, Masterworks of American Impressionism, July 22–October 28, 1990, no. 29, pp. 80–81 ill. in color, as Last Touch of Sun.
1994 Columbus Museum of Art
Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, Triumph of Color and Light: Ohio Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, February 6–May 15, 1994, pp. 4 ill. in color, detail, 22–23, 159 ill. in b/w, as Last Touch of Sun.
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. 50, pp. 143, 145 ill. in color, as Last Touch of Sun. Traveled to: Cincinnati Art Museum, June 6–September 5, 1999; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, October 16, 1999–January 2, 2000.
2001 National Academy of Design
National Academy of Design, New York, The Cos Cob Art Colony: Impressionists on the Connecticut Shore, February 13–May 13, 2001. (Larkin 2001–I), as Last Touch of Sun. Traveled to: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, June 17–September 16, 2001; Denver Art Museum, October 27, 2001–January 20, 2002.
Literature
Boston Herald 1893
"The Fine Arts: Two Radical Impressionists at the St. Botolph Club." Boston Herald, December 3, 1893, p. 24, as Last Touch of Sun.
Boston newspaper, unidentified 1893
[unknown title]. unidentified Boston newspaper, ca. November 1893, as Last Touch of Sun.
Daily Inter-Ocean 1893
"Life in the 'Hub' . . . An Impressionist Exhibition [covers exhibition at St. Botolph Club in Boston]." Daily Inter-Ocean (Chicago), December 9, 1893, p. 12, as Last Touch of Sun.
Moran 1896–I
Moran, J. W. "A Slip of the Red Pencil." Des Moines Register, February 16, 1896, p. 12, as Last Touch of Sun.
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. 469 (catalogue G, no. 380), as Last Touch of Sun. (Hale concordance).
Christie's, New York 1986–II
Important American Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Auction catalogue, December 5, 1986. New York: Christie's, 1986, lot 206 ill. in color, as Last Touch of Sun.
Adams et al. 1989
Adams, Henry et al. American Paintings from the Manoogian Collection. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art in association with the Detroit Institute of Arts, 1989. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 182–83 ill. in color, as Last Touch of Sun.
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. 28–29 ill. in b/w, 30, as Last Touch of Sun.
Gerdts 1990–II
Gerdts, William H. Masterworks of American Impressionism. Lugano-Castagnola, Switzerland: Fondazione Thyssen-Bornemisza, 1990. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 80–81 ill. in color, as Last Touch of Sun.
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. 358; vol. 2, p. 895 ill. in b/w (fig. 381), as Last Touch of Sun.
Larkin 1996
Larkin, Susan G. "'A Regular Rendezvous for Impressionists:' The Cos Cob Art Colony 1882–1920." Ph.D. dissertation, 1996. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microforms, 1996, pp. xxvi, 60n9, 220–21, 241n23, 450 ill. in b/w (8.4), as Last Touch of Sun.
Larkin 1998
Larkin, Susan G. "On Home Ground: John Twachtman and the Familiar Landscape." American Art Journal 29 (1998), pp. 58 ill. in b/w, 59–60, as Last Touch of Sun.
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. 143, 145 ill. in color, as Last Touch of Sun.
Larkin 2001–I
Larkin, Susan G. The Cos Cob Art Colony: Impressionists on the Connecticut Shore. New York: National Academy of Design in association with Yale University, 2001. Exhibition catalogue (2001 National Academy of Design), pp. 180–82 ill. in color, 183, as Last Touch of Sun.
Peters 2021–II
Peters, Lisa N. Life and Art: The Greenwich Paintings of John Henry Twachtman. Cos Cob, Conn.: Greenwich Historical Society, 2021. Exhibition catalogue (2022 Greenwich Historical Society), pp. 33, 35 ill. in color (fig. 23), 36, 38–39, 43, 45, as Last Touch of Sun.
Commentary

One of few Greenwich works to retain a title from the artist’s lifetime, Last Touch of Sun was shown in 1893 at the American Art Galleries (including the work of Twachtman, Julian Alden Weir, Claude Monet, and Paul-Albert Besnard) and the St. Botolph Club (including the work of Twachtman and Weir). Reviewing the former, a critic for the Art Amateur must have had the painting in mind in a comparison of Twachtman’s and Monet’s images of their homes, which were both on view: “One of Monet’s pictures is of his house in a garden of sunflowers; two are of haystacks; and Mr. Twachtman seems to have taken a hint from this preference for commonplace subjects made beautiful by light, and has given us several views of his house (more picturesquely situated, it is true) in summer and in winter. His snow scenes, with blue shadows, or unseen trees lying across rocks and garden walls, are the most charming things he has done.”[1]

However, only one painting by Claude Monet of his home was in the show: The Artist's Garden at Vétheuil (fig. 1). Titled Maison de Monet in the exhibition (no. 142), the work was one of four paintings from 1878–81 that Monet created of his home in the Paris suburb of Vétheuil.[2] The critic's comment is apt, given that in the work Monet's home consists only of the roof and window of the building in the upper left corner. Monet depicted his home from a garden he had planted across the street from it, whose large sunflowers fill much of the picture plane without diminishing in scale. Twachtman, by contrast, depicted a more approachable home. It appears to rest comfortably in the snow-blanketed landscape between fleecy clouds and their reflections on the sun-dappled snow. He conveyed the dwelling's harmonious relationship with its surroundings by depicting it with proportions matching those of the work's format. 

Twachtman again exhibited Last Touch of Sun at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh in 1897–98. It was perhaps there that it caught the eye of Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919). However, he may have had to wait to purchase the painting until after it was shown at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts annual in 1898. The painting passed down in Carnegie's family until 1986.

[1] Art Amateur 1893.

[2] Monet's other images of his home in Vétheuil include The Artist's Garden at Vétheuil, 1880 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) and The Artist's Garden at Vétheuil, 1881 (Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena). 

Selected Literature

From Larkin 1996

Twachtman's domestic images reveal various relationships with the place: as domicile, status symbol, food source, recreational site, object of beauty, and focus of contemplation. Last Touch of Sun (fig. 8.4) conveys the sense of security the simple farmhouse represented to the artist. The composition is bracketed by Round Hill Road, curving into the distance at the left, and a birdhouse set atop a tall pole at the right. A cozy retreat from the busy world implied by the road, the house nestles into its setting, its white walls and snow-covered roof merging with the snowy landscape. The row of corn shocks at the left is an emblem of the earth's bounty, while the saplings in the foreground, neatly planted in parallel rows, reveal that the owner's intentions are not agricultural but aesthetic. The birdhouse, a miniature version of the human habitation, represents the mediation between nature and culture that would be characteristic of Twachtman's landscaping (both literal and painterly). Setting a birdhouse near his home enabled Twachtman to observe its occupants day to day, becoming as familiar with them as with the trees he had planted nearby. The birdhouse is both a playful twist on the theme of home as haven and evidence of Twachtman's desire fully to know every aspect of his home ground [pp. 220–21].