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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The Landing, Newport, ca. 1889 (OP.838). OP.838, The Landing, Newport, detail with signature.
OP.838, The Landing, Newport, detail with signature.
The Landing, Newport, ca. 1889 (OP.838). Verso: OP.838, The Landing, Newport.
Verso: OP.838, The Landing, Newport.
Related Work
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Keywords
OP.838
The Landing, Newport
Alternate titles: Gloucester Pier; The Landing, Gloucester
ca. 1889
Oil on primed wood panel
8 1/8 x 12 1/8 in. (20.6 x 30.8 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman–
Location unknown
Exhibitions
1970 Dallas Museum of Fine Arts
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, The M. P. Potamkin Collection, January–March 1970, no. 70, as Gloucester Pier.
1972 William Penn Memorial Museum
William Penn Memorial Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, An Alumnus Salutes Dickinson College's 200th Anniversary, 1773–1973: From the Collection of Meyer and Vivian Potamkin, November 19, 1972–January 3, 1973, no. 150, as Gloucester Pier.
Literature
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. 273; vol. 2, p. 798 ill. in b/w (fig. 273), as The Landing, Newport.
Baskett 1999
Baskett, Mary Welsh. John Henry Twachtman: American Impressionist Painter as Printmaker—A Catalogue Raisonné of His Prints. Bronxville, N.Y.: M. Hausberg, 1999, p. 118, as The Landing, Newport. (Baskett concordance).
Sotheby's New York 2003
American Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture from the Collection of Meyer and Vivian Potamkin. Auction catalogue, May 21, 2003. New York: Sotheby's, 2003, lot 52 ill. in color, as The Landing, Newport.
Freeman's 2018
The Collection of Dorrance "Dodo" H. Hamilton, Auction catalogue, April 29, 2018. Philadelphia, 2018, lot 24 ill. in color, as The Landing, Newport.
Commentary

Twachtman created an etching of this subject, Dock at Newport (E.810), which was printed by Kimmel and Voight at the DeVinne Press, New York for the February 1893 New York Etching Club catalogue with the title of Dock at Newport.[1]  Thus, this painting, once thought to portray Gloucester, can be identified as an image of Newport, where Twachtman spent the summer of 1889. A review of the etching club exhibition described the image as “a sketch of part of the Long Wharf [in Newport] from the harbor.”[2]

The etching, in reverse, was probably derived from the painting, in which Twachtman used a loose calligraphic brush handling. There are, nonetheless, differences in the two works. In the painting there are tiny figures on the bridge that are not present in the etching and the buildings are grouped more closely together, continuing the line of the pier that forms the principal diagonal shape within the composition. The etching includes a Venetian-style building at the right, not present here, that is unidentified and was possibly added by Twachtman to balance the work's horizontality. 

This painting was sold from the artist’s estate by Milch Gallery to the Philadelphia art collectors Meyer and Vivian Potamkin. It was included in the sale of works from their collection, held at Sotheby's New York, in 2003.

[1] Baskett 1999, p. 118.

[2] New York Times 1893-II, p. 16.