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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Keywords
OP.1402
Drying Sails
ca. 1900
Oil on canvas
25 x 20 in. (63.5 x 50.8 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman–
Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Gift of Charles Lang Freer (F1903.77a)
Exhibitions
1901 Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of the Works of John H. Twachtman, January 8–27, 1901, no. 21, as Drying Sails.
1901–I Cincinnati Art Museum
Cincinnati Art Museum, Exhibition of Sixty Paintings by Mr. John H. Twachtman, Formerly Resident in Cincinnati, April 12–May 16, 1901, no. 52, as Drying Sails.
1901–II Cincinnati Art Museum
Cincinnati Art Museum, Eighth Annual Exhibition of American Art, May 18–July 8, 1901, no. 93, as Drying Sails.
1903–I American Art Galleries
American Art Galleries, New York, Sale of the Work of the Late John H. Twachtman, exhibition and auction, March 19–24, 1903, no. 59, as Drying Sails.
1909 Albright Art Gallery
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, Fourth Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists, May 10–August 30, 1909, no. 169, as Drying Sails, lent by Charles L. Freer, Esq.
1909 City Art Museum of St. Louis
City Art Museum of St. Louis, Fourth Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists, opened September 12, 1909, no. 169, p. 55 ill. in b/w, as Drying Sails, lent by Charles L. Freer, Esq, Detroit).
1910 University of Michigan
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Alumnae Memorial Building Inaugural Loan Exhibition, opened May 11, 1910, no. 68, as Drying Sails, lent by Charles L. Freer.
1913–I Albright Art Gallery
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, Paintings and Pastels by the Late John H. Twachtman, March 11–April 2, 1913, no. 24, as Drying Sails, lent by Charles L. Freer, Esq.
1915–II Detroit Institute
Detroit Institute, First Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists, April 9–May 31, 1915, no. 28, as Drying Sails, lent by the Freer Collection.
Literature
Brush and Pencil 1903
"Some Recent Art Sales." Brush and Pencil 12 (May 1903), p. 122, as Drying Sails.
New-York Tribune 1903–II
"Twachtman Pictures, $16,610: Former Pupils Applaud Sales of Favorite Canvases." New-York Tribune, March 25, 1903, p. 9, as Drying Sails.
Sun 1903–II
"Twachtman Pictures, $16,610." Sun (New York), March 25, 1903, p. 5, as Drying Sails.
Buffalo Fine Arts Academy 1909
Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. "Fourth Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists." Academy Notes 4 (May 1909), pp. 202, 205–6, as Drying Sails.
Tucker 1931
Tucker, Allen. John H. Twachtman. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1931, pp. 9, 32–33 ill. in b/w, as Drying Sails.
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. 568 (catalogue A, no. 524), as Drying Sails. (Hale concordance).
Hale 1987
Hale, John Douglass. "Twachtman's Gloucester Period: A 'Clarifying Process.'" In Twachtman in Gloucester: His Last Years, 1900–1902, by John Douglass Hale, Richard J. Boyle, and William H. Gerdts. New York: Universe and Ira Spanierman Gallery, 1987. Exhibition catalogue (1987 Spanierman), pp. 10 ill. in b/w, 11–12 ill. in b/w, as Drying Sails.
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. 496; vol. 2, p. 1012 ill. in b/w (fig. 513), as Drying Sails.
Commentary

Drying Sails is depicted in one of the twenty-four charcoal sketches Twachtman created after works he painted in Gloucester in the summer of 1900 (D.1422). In the drawing he recorded the painting's dimensions as "25 x 25 inches," whereas the canvas measures 25 x 20 inches. This indicates that Twachtman must have cut down the painting after he made the drawing, cropping it by five inches at both right and left to establish a tighter and more cohesive design. This is borne out by a comparison of the drawing and the painting. At the left in the painting, Twachtman eliminated an additional sailboat; at the right, he removed part of the building in the background. He seems to also have lowered the height of the buildings that form the horizon line to give more emphasis to the verticality of the sails and their reflections.

Twachtman showed this painting with its current title in his 1901 exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago (January) and the Cincinnati Art Museum (April–May).[1] It was probably on the mind of a Chicago critic, who stated: "Several pictures show one or more sailboats large enough to almost fill the frame, with some space reserved for straggling reflections of their vivid sides in . . . these are a pleasure to see."[1]

The painting appears to have remained in Cincinnati after Twachtman's show closed at the art museum on May 16, 1901 in order to be included in the Cincinnati Art Museum annual, which opened two days later. It did not sell in Cincinnati and was represented in the artist's 1903 estate sale, from which it was purchased by Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919). In that year, Freer ordered a gilded wood frame for it, in the manner of the frames of Stanford White, from W. C. LeBrocq. The style is one that White usually reserved for paintings by Thomas Dewing, who consulted on the frame. The painting remains in the original frame today. 

[1] Chicago Post 1901.

Selected Literature

From Buffalo Fine Arts Academy 1909.

“Drying Sails,” by J. H. Twachtman, so kindly lent by Charles L. Freer, Esq., of Detroit, hangs also on the west wall of the Gallery XIII. It is a remarkably strong and beautiful work of this distinguished painter. One can almost feel the wet, white sails fluttering in the breeze, which is caused by the light, puffy white clouds in the blue sky. The entire composition is reflected in the transparency of the water in the foreground and is one of the most fascinating productions of Mr. Twachtman.

From Tucker 1931.

The schooner in the Freer Gallery in Washington, so easily painted, and so solid in its form, so complete in its visual comprehension [p. 9].