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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
P.811
Haystacks at Edge of Woods
Alternate titles: Hay Stacks; Twin Haystacks
ca. 1888–91
Pastel on paper board
9 5/8 x 14 1/8 in. (24.4 x 35.9 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman–
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., Gift of John Gellatly (1929.6.139)
Provenance
(Milch);
to John Gellatly, New York;
gift to present collection, 1929.
Exhibitions
1890 Providence Art Club probably
Providence Art Club, Rhode Island, Spring Exhibition, April 16–May 17, 1890, no. 81, as Twin Haystacks.
1893 St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts probably
St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts, Tenth Annual Exhibition, 1893, no. 354, as Twin Haystacks.
1895 Fine Arts Society probably
Fine Arts Society, New York, Sixth Annual Exhibition, New York Water-Color Club: Paintings in Water Colors and Pastels, November 11–23, 1895, no. 216, as Twin Haystacks.
1895 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts probably
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Sixty-Fifth Annual Exhibition, December 23, 1895–January 22, 1896, no. 675, as Twin Haystacks.
1971 Lowe Art Museum
Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, French Impressionists Influence American Artists, March 19–April 25, 1971, no. 177, p. 56, as Haystacks at Edge of Woods.
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 Haystacks at Edge of Woods, shown only in New York. Traveled to: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, June 17–September 16, 2001; Denver Art Museum, October 27, 2001–January 20, 2002.
Literature
Smithsonian Institution 1933
Smithsonian Institution. Catalogue of American and European Paintings in the Gellatly Collection. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1933, p. 18, as Haystacks at Edge of Woods.
Smithsonian Institution 1954
Smithsonian Institution. Catalogue of American and European Paintings in the Gellatly Collection. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1954, p. 16, as Haystacks at Edge of Woods.
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. 588 (catalogue A, no. 956), as Haystacks at Edge of Woods. (Hale concordance).
Gerdts 1984
Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. New York: Abbeville, 1984, p. 51 ill. in color, as Haystacks at Edge of Woods.
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. 265; vol. 2, p. 805 ill. in b/w (fig. 281), as Haystacks at Edge of Woods.
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. 171–72 ill. in color, 173, as Haystacks at Edge of Woods.
Commentary

In Haystacks at the Edge of the Woods, Twachtman made use of the freedom and painterly textures afforded in open-air pastel work, capturing the essence of his motifs. He depicted the fleeting effects of light on the foliage and wildflowers with rapid dabs while employing more forceful handling and blending to convey the fullness of the two haystacks that, standing together, push up against the split-rail fence that sets off a farm from open countryside. Much of the paper’s tone is visible in the drawing but it is so well incorporated into the design that this is not at first apparent.

This work is likely to be the pastel Twachtman showed as Twin Haystacks in 1890 at the Providence Art Club, and in 1895 at the New York Water-Color Club (which included pastels and watercolors) and the annual that year of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The noted collector John Gellatly probably purchased the work directly from Twachtman, and it was part of Gellatly's gift of his collection to the Smithsonian in 1929. 

Selected Literature

From Larkin 2001

To create Haystacks at the Edge of the Woods, [Twachtman] positioned himself in a nondescript field that lacked any landmarks to define it as a remarkable place and selected a medium—pastel—suited to a small scale, sketchy handling, and ultimately private appreciation. Instead of a vast panorama, Twachtman depicted a shallow space, partitioned by a silvery split-rail fence and enclosed by the woods in the background. Instead of haymakers at work, he sketched the results of their labor: twinned haystacks, which seem as indigenous and inevitable in this landscape as boulders or oaks. The artist (and, by extension, the viewer) is alone in this quiet corner; the overgrown field, sprigged with wildflowers, is a place of intimate beauty [pp. 171, 173].