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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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Additional Images
Coast Scene, 1879 (OP.310). Fig. 1. Twachtman, "Study of New Jersey Shore," engraving by W. Miller, from George McLaughlin, "Cincinnati Artists of the Munich School." American Art Review 2 (December 1880), p. 46.
Fig. 1. Twachtman, "Study of New Jersey Shore," engraving by W. Miller, from George McLaughlin, "Cincinnati Artists of the Munich School." American Art Review 2 (December 1880), p. 46.
Related Work
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Keywords
OP.310
Coast Scene
Alternate title: Study of New Jersey Shore
1879
Oil on panel
22 x 36 in. (55.9 x 91.4 cm)
Signed, dated, and inscribed lower right: J. H. Twachtman, N.Y. 79
Reading Public Museum, Pennsylvania, Museum Purchase (1929.181.1)
Provenance
Charles Worthington Gould;
(American Art Association—Anderson Galleries, New York, October 30–31, 1929, lot 72);
to present collection, 1929.
Literature
McLaughlin 1880
McLaughlin, George. "Cincinnati Artists of the Munich School." American Art Review 2 (December 1880), p. 46 ill. in b/w in engraving by W. Miller, as Study of New Jersey Shore.
American Art Association—Anderson Galleries 1929–I
Auction catalogue, October 30–31, 1929. New York: American Art Association—Anderson Galleries, 1929, lot 72, as Coast Scene.
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. 546 (catalogue A, no. 130), as Coast Scene. (Hale concordance).
Gerdts 1984
Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. New York: Abbeville, 1984, p. 108 ill. in b/w, as Coast Scene.
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, pp. 86, 93–94; vol. 2, p. 626 ill. in b/w (fig. 72), as Coast Scene.
Peters 1999–I
Peters, Lisa N. John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist. Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 1999. Exhibition catalogue (1999 High Museum of Art), p. 38 ill. in b/w, as Coast Scene.
Commentary

Inscribed and dated “N.Y. 79,” this painting was reproduced in an engraving captioned, "Study of New Jersey Shore," in George McLaughlin's second 1880 article on Cincinnati artists of the Munich School, which was published in the American Art Review (fig. 1).[1]

The locale featured—the peninsula in Jersey City, southwest of the Morris Canal—would have been easy for Twachtman to reach on foot on leaving the ferry depot in Communipaw. The site was probably south of Communipaw Cove on New York Bay. In the late 1870s, this area, created by landfill earlier in the decade, was lightly settled by fishermen, oyster farmers, and squatters.[2] (Today it is the location of Liberty State Park.) As in The Boat Yard (OP.309), a smaller, more quickly rendered image depicting the same site, Twachtman's vantage point was along the shore, past fishing shacks and boats under repair, while in the distance taller buildings and industrial forms loom, indicating the progress that would soon move down the coast. A woman in a red skirt in the foreground, probably gathering oysters at the water's edge, draws the viewer's attention to the red shapes of buildings of factories that are distant but not all that far away.  

The illustration of this painting in McLaughlin's 1880 article suggests that it was selected for reproduction due to being exhibited as On the New Jersey Coast at the Society of American Artists annual in March–April 1880. However, no reviews made mention of the work on display. 

The painting was first known to have been owned by Charles W. Gould (1849–1931), a New York lawyer as well as a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1915–30). Gould was also at one time a student of Eliot Clark, who studied with Twachtman and wrote about his work three times, in 1919, 1921, and 1924. The painting was sold with its present title at the American Art Association in 1929.

[1] McLaughlin 1880, p. 46. The engraver is identified as W. Miller.

[2] I would like to thank John W. Beekman, assistant manager, Jersey City Free Public Library, for his assistance in identifying this site. 

Selected Literature

From American Art Association—Anderson Galleries 1929–I

Under a cloudy sky is a bleak undulating coastline with buildings in the middle distance, and a beached launch at right. At left beyond the jetty are moored sailing ships, and in the foreground is a peasant woman in crimson apron drawing water at the inlet.