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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Additional Images
Summer Afternoon, 1898–1900 (OP.985). Fig. 1. From Anne Whelan, "Ahead of His Time, Twachtman Comes into His Own," Bridgeport Sunday Post , June 9, 1940, p. B5.
Fig. 1. From Anne Whelan, "Ahead of His Time, Twachtman Comes into His Own," Bridgeport Sunday Post , June 9, 1940, p. B5.
Keywords
OP.985
Summer Afternoon
1898–1900
Oil on canvas
26 x 16 in. (66 x 40.6 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman
Private collection
Exhibitions
1989 Spanierman
Spanierman Gallery, New York, In the Sunlight: The Floral and Figurative Art of J. H. Twachtman, May 10–June 10, 1989. (Exhibition catalogue: Boyle 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Gerdts 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Spanierman 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Peters 1989–II); (Exhibition catalogue: Peters 1989–III), no. 14, pp. 82–83 ill. in color, as Summer Afternoon.
2006 Spanierman
Spanierman Gallery, New York, John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter," May 4–June 24, 2006. (Nelson 2006); (Parkes 2006); (Peters 2006–I); (Peters 2006–II); (Peters 2006–III); (Peters 2006–IV), no. 48, as Summer Afternoon, shown only in New York. Traveled to: Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, July 13–October 29, 2006.
Literature
Peters 1989–III
Peters, Lisa N. "Catalogue." In In the Sunlight: The Floral and Figurative Art of J.H. Twachtman, by Lisa N. Peters et al. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 1989. Exhibition catalogue (1989 Spanierman), pp. 82–83 ill. in color, as Summer Afternoon.
Peters 1994
Peters, Lisa N. "The Suburban Aesthetic: John Twachtman's White Bridge." Porticus: Journal of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester 17–19 (1994–96), pp. 51–53, 55 ill. in b/w, as Summer Afternoon.
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. 389; vol. 2, p. 940 ill. in b/w (fig. 426), as Summer Afternoon.
Peters 2006–IV
Peters, Lisa N. "Catalogue." In John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter", by Lisa N. Peters. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Spanierman), pp. 174–75 ill. in color, as Summer Afternoon.
Sotheby's New York 2011
American Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture. Auction catalogue, May 19, 2011. New York: Sotheby's, 2011, lot 20 ill. in color, as Summer Afternoon.
Commentary

The bridge depicted here may be the same bridge in The White Bridge (OP.983) and Bridge in the Woods (OP.984). In all three works, the bridge over Horseneck Brook is low to the water and its span is plank-like. However, here there is no canopy at the crossing point, implying that the work was painted before the canopy was constructed or after it had come off. Rendered with painterly immediacy from a close vantage point on the shore, the painting exemplifies the alla prima style evident in works Twachtman created in Gloucester during his last three summers, 1900–1902. Here he fully embraced a merging of everyday life and art. The figure in a white dress and sun hat is surely the artist’s wife, Martha, whose bent back, facing the viewer, implies her attention to a small child waiting on the opposite bank, perhaps after having traveled across the brook in the small sailboat docked at the shore. Twachtman echoed Martha's dress in the boat’s sail. The painting is likely to have been a personal favorite, as it appears in a photograph of the artist’s home (fig. 1) and remained in the family until 1940.