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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Catalogue Entry

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Keywords
OP.1114
Hemlock Pool (Autumn)
Alternate titles: Autumn; Hemlock Pool, Autumn
ca. 1893–94
Oil on canvas
15 1/2 x 19 1/2 in. (39.4 x 49.5 cm)
Partial and promised gift to the Seattle Art Museum from a private collection (2005.166)
Image: Susan Cole
Provenance
Private collection, Philadelphia, by 1978;
(Graham Gallery, New York, 1989);
to private collection, 1990;
promised gift to present collection, 2008.
Exhibitions
1894 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts probably
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Sixty-Fourth Annual Exhibition, December 17, 1894–January 23, 1895, no. 300, as Autumn.
1913–I Albright Art Gallery probably
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, Paintings and Pastels by the Late John H. Twachtman, March 11–April 2, 1913, no. 18, as Hemlock Pool, Autumn.
1989–II National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., District of Columbia, John Twachtman: Connecticut Landscapes, October 15, 1989–January 28, 1990. (Exhibition catalogue: Chotner 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Pyne 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Peters 1989–I), no. 4, p. 92 ill. in color, as Hemlock Pool, Autumn. Traveled to: Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, March 18–May 20, 1990.
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. 34, as Hemlock Pool, Autumn. Traveled to: Cincinnati Art Museum, June 6–September 5, 1999; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, October 16, 1999–January 2, 2000.
Literature
Philadelphia Inquirer 1894 probably
"New Pictures at the Academy." Philadelphia Inquirer, December 16, 1894, p. 5, as Autumn.
Philadelphia Times 1894 probably
"The Academy Exhibition." Philadelphia Times, December 16, 1894, as Autumn.
New York Times 1894–V probably
"Art Notes." New York Times, December 23, 1894, p. 20, as Autumn.
Walker 1895–I
"Fine Arts: The Pennsylvania Academy Exhibition." Walker, Sophia Antoinette. Independent 47 (January 3, 1895), p. 19, as Autumn.
Boyle 1978
Boyle, Richard J. "John H. Twachtman: An Appreciation." American Art & Antiques 1 (November–December 1978), pp. 72 ill. in color, 74–75, as Hemlock Pool, Autumn.
Boyle 1979
Boyle, Richard. John Twachtman. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1979, pp. 40–41 ill. in color, 42, 56, as Hemlock Pool (Autumn).
Richard 1989
Richard, Paul. "John Twachtman's Scenes of Silence: At the National Gallery, Meditations on the Landscape." Washington Post, October 22, 1989, p. G10, as Hemlock Pool, Autumn.
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), p. 31, as Hemlock Pool, Autumn.
May 1990
May, Stephen. "Twachtman at the Wadsworth Atheneum." Art Times (March 1990), p. 9, as Hemlock Pool, Autumn.
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. 361; vol. 2, p. 899 ill. in b/w (fig. 385), as Hemlock Pool, Autumn.
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. xxix, 238, 473 ill. in b/w (8.30), as Hemlock Pool, Autumn.
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. 123–24 ill. in color, as Hemlock Pool, Autumn.
Peters 2006–III
Peters, Lisa N. "Twachtman and the Equipoise of Impressionism and Tonalism." In John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter", by Lisa N Peters. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Spanierman), p. 66 ill. in color (fig. 59), as Hemlock Pool, Autumn.
Junker 2008–I
Junker, Patricia. "America in the Artful Age." In A Community of Collectors: 75th Anniversary Gifts to the Seattle Art Museum, ed. Chiyo Ishikawa. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 2008, pp. 195–96, ill. in color (fig. 167), as Hemlock Pool, Autumn.
Junker 2008–II
Junker, Patricia. "A Sense of Place: American Art and the Seattle Art Museum." Antiques (November 2008), p. 117 ill. in color (fig. 15), as Hemlock Pool, Autumn.
Commentary

At first Hemlock Pool is not evident in this painting, which is rendered with paint dabbed and rubbed in light autumnal hues across the canvas. However, gradually the contours of the pool on Horseneck Brook (to the west of Twachtman’s home) and the reflections on its surface emerge, filling the middle ground, with the high embankments and trees on either side.

This work is the best match in Twachtman’s oeuvre for a painting with the title Autumn, for which he received the Temple Gold Medal at the Sixty-Fourth annual of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, held December 1894 to February 1895. The award, given to the best work in the show, was not a cash prize, although some of the winning paintings were purchased by the academy. Twachtman’s was not purchased, probably because of the harsh response it received in the Philadelphia press, where it was derided as an example of an “extreme and experimental” form of Impressionism that critics felt had become all too prevalent in exhibitions of the day. Their negativity was pronounced enough to be newsworthy, and New York Times covered it in an article extensively quoting from the Philadelphia papers (see selected literature).[1]

The painting was also probably lent by the artist’s wife as Hemlock Pool, Autumn, to the shows of Twachtman’s work in Buffalo and New York in 1913.

[1] New York Times 1894–IV. 

Selected Literature

From Philadelphia Inquirer 1894

Impressionism is now the idol to which every knee must bow to receive the Academy’s benediction. This is shown in the work of the students, in the prominence given impressionistic paintings in exhibitions, and finally the seal has been set by awarding the Temple Gold Medal, the highest honor of the exhibition to a small Impressionist picture—a misty agglomeration of blues and reds--a thing of shreds and patches. Not but that Mr. Twachtman’s bit of landscape in and of itself is admirably done for a thing of its kind—and the kind is well enough if it is made an incident in art, but to apotheosize it, to ignore all else, is nothing less than rank heresy—it is the effort of a few young sprigs of genius to overthrow the serious results of a thousand years of the best artists—an attempt that must prove futile. Impressionism certainly contains germs of truth. It has its mission.

From Philadelphia Times 1894

The award of the Temple gold medal yesterday afternoon to J. H. Twachtman’s “Autumn” is a matter of more than surprise.  It is a regret.  While it is necessarily an award which no jury of amateurs would make, the “Autumn” is hardly a picture. Its art is experimental, and however fashionable it may be, has only the subterfuge of an affected technique to recommend it.  Mr. Twachtman has five outdoor pictures, all in the same manner, painted in and scratched out probably with a palette knife.  This art “may appeal to the soul of the artist,” as one of the fraternity remarked yesterday, but it surely will to nobody else.