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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.724
View on the Brette, Bethune
Alternate titles: On the Bethune; View of the Brette, Bethune; View on the Bethune
ca. 1884
Oil on canvas
18 x 20 1/2 in. (45.7 x 52.1 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman
Location unknown
Provenance
Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, purchased from the artist;
to (Kende Galleries, Gimbel Brothers, New York, 1947);
(Vose);
to W. Stanley Barrett, Providence, Rhode Island, ca. 1947–as of 1957.
Exhibitions
1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition
Department of Fine Arts, San Francisco, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, February 20–December 4, 1915, no. 4058, as View on the Brette, Bethune, lent by the Hillyer Art Gallery, Smith College.
Literature
Smith College Museum of Art 1937
Smith College Museum of Art. Collection Catalogue. Northampton, Mass.: Smith College Museum of Art, 1937, p. 12, p. 65 ill. in b/w, as View on the Brette, Bethune.
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. 1, p. 304 ill. in b/w (fig. 69); vol. 2, p. 541 (catalogue A, no. 50), as View on the Brette, Bethune. (Hale concordance).
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. 201–2; vol. 2, p. 710 ill. in b/w (fig. 175), as View on the Brette, Bethune.
Commentary

This painting was purchased by Smith College directly from Twachtman. In 1947, the college sold the painting, and its current location is unknown. Its title identifies its site as the Béthune River, a narrow waterway that winds through the countryside of Arques-la-Bataille. The painting depicts the same site as the larger Springtime (OP.725), for which it was probably the basis. However, Twachtman signed this work, indicating that he did not consider it just a study. In both paintings, the viewpoint is across a river that forms a broad curve before turning inland, its continued movement left implied. Twachtman's low angle may have had an impact on the scale in the landscape, perhaps making the embankment appear steeper and the hills closer than they were actuality. Near the bend in the river, a solitary home is set into the land, marking the intersection of tall trees near the river bank and the turn in the river. Additional trees along the river bank, bearing just a few leaves, are more suggestive of fall than spring. Fall would be consistent with Twachtman’s visit to Arques-la-Bataille, which occurred in the summer and early fall of 1884. No works exhibited by Twachtman in his lifetime can be linked with this painting and the origin of the word "Brette" in its title is unknown and was not used by the artist.  

In 1915, Smith College lent the painting to the Panama Pacific International Exhibition. Its purchaser from the college in 1947 was Gimbel Brothers, New York, and its last known owner was a private collector in Rhode Island, who still owned it at the time Hale completed his dissertation in 1957.