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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
OP.989
Still Life: Flowers
Alternate titles: Flowers; Gladioli; Gladiolus; Still Life
ca. 1893
Oil on canvas
30 1/4 x 25 in. (76.8 x 63.5 cm)
Michael Altman Fine Art & Advisory Services, New York
Provenance
Mr. and Mrs. Edward H. Coates, Philadelphia;
to Mrs. Edward H. Coates;
gift to Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Edward H. Coates Memorial Collection, 1923;
to (Menconi & Schoelkopf, New York).
Private collection;
to present collection.
Exhibitions
1893 American Art Galleries
American Art Galleries, New York, Paintings, Pastels, and Etchings by J. Alden Weir, J. H. Twachtman, Claude Monet, and Paul Albert Besnard, by May 4–mid-November 1893, no. 27, as Gladiolus.
1907 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 102nd Annual Exhibition, January 21–February 24, 1907, no. 263, as Flowers.
1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition
Department of Fine Arts, San Francisco, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, February 20–December 4, 1915, no. 4068, as Gladioli, lent by Edward H. Coates, Esq.
1923 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, The Edward H. Coates Memorial Collection, November 3, 1923–January 10, 1924, no. 17, as Still Life.
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. 8, as Flowers.
1998 Bermuda National Gallery
Bermuda National Gallery, Light, Air, and Colour: American Impressionist Paintings from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, September 27, 1997–January 9, 1998, p. 34, as Flowers.
Literature
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. 1, p. 320 ill. in b/w (fig. 83); vol. 2, p. 549 (catalogue A, no. 173), as Flowers. (Hale concordance).
Gerdts and Burke 1971
Gerdts, William H. and Russell Burke. American Still-Life Painting. New York: Praeger, 1971, p. 214 ill. in b/w, as Flowers.
Gerdts 1981
Gerdts, William H. Painters of the Humble Truth: Masterpieces of American Still Life, 1801-1939. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1981, p. 221, as Flowers.
Gerdts 1989
Gerdts, William H. "'Like Dreams of Flowers.'" 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. 31–32, as Flowers.
Mott 1989
Mott, Jacolyn A., ed. The American Paintings in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts: An Illustrated Checklist. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in association with the University of Washington, 1989, p. 152 ill. in b/w, as Flowers.
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. 70–71 ill. in color, as Flowers.
Danly 1990
Danly, Susan. Light, Air, and Color: American Impressionist Paintings from the Collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1990, p. 78 ill. in color, as Flowers.
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. 357; vol. 2, p. 892 ill. in b/w (fig. 378), as Flowers.
Commentary

In one of his few still lifes, Twachtman chose a traditional tabletop format, which he enlivened with his oblique overhead angle and effervescent Impressionist brushwork in the swordlike flowers and their reflections.

The flowers can be identified as gladioli as the painting was exhibited as Gladiolus in the 1893 exhibition at the American Art Galleries, featuring work by Twachtman, Julian Alden Weir, Claude Monet, and Paul-Albert Besnard. The perennial flowers in pink and red were probably picked from the artist’s garden at a point when they were at the height of their bloom.

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Archives contains a letter from Silas S. Dustin, the agent for the Twachtman’s estate, to John D. Trask, the academy’s secretary and managing director from 1905 to 1913, in which Dustin states that he is pleased that Trask would be purchasing “the ‘Twachtman’ painting called Flowers.” The painting was probably acquired by Trask for Mr. and Mrs. Edward Coates. A financier, and a publicist from a Philadelphia colonial family, Edward Coates (1846–1921) was the president of the academy from 1890 to 1906. His wife, Florence Van Leer Earle Nicholson Coates (1850–1927) was a poet and a descendant of a prominent colonial family. The painting, given to the Pennsylvania Academy by Mrs. Coates in memory of her husband in 1923, was deaccessioned in 2009.

Selected Literature

From Gerdts 1989

In Twachtman’s sole bouquet, the flowers are lovingly rendered, the artist contrasting the exuberance of the gladioli with the basic ethereality of his vision. But he was obviously less secure with the need to reconcile these factors with the traditional forms of vase and supporting table and the construction of convincing spatial ambience.