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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.1400
Bark and Schooner (Italian Salt Bark)
Alternate titles: Bark and Schooner; Italian Barque; Italian Salt Bark
ca. 1900
Oil on canvas
25 x 25 in. (63.5 x 63.5 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman
Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust (H-88.1931)
Provenance
(Macbeth);
(Ferargil Galleries, New York);
to present collection, 1931.
Exhibitions
1901 Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of the Works of John H. Twachtman, January 8–27, 1901, no. 17, as Italian Barque.
1931 School of Fine Arts, University of Nebraska
School of Fine Arts, University of Nebraska, Morrill Hall, Lincoln, Forty-First Annual Exhibition, February 12–March 15, 1931, no. 71, as Bark and Schooner.
1934 Nebraska Art Association
Nebraska Art Association, Morrill Hall University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Forty-Fourth Annual Exhibition of Paintings, February 13–March 18, 1934, no. 57, as Bark and Schooner.
1948 Grinnell College
Grinnell College, Iowa, Paintings from the F. M. Hall Collection, March 1948, as Bark and Schooner.
1963 Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, Nebraska, A Selection of Works from the Art Collections at the University of Nebraska Exhibited on Occasion of the Inauguration of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, opened May 1, 1963, no. 101, as Bark and Schooner.
1966 Cincinnati Art Museum
Cincinnati Art Museum, John Henry Twachtman: A Retrospective Exhibition, October 7–November 20, 1966. (Exhibition catalogue: Baskett 1966); (Exhibition catalogue: Boyle 1966–I), no. 90, as Bark and Schooner (Italian Salt Bark), lent by the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, The University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
1974 Des Moines Art Center
Des Moines Art Center, Iowa, The Kirsch Years: A Testimonial Exhibition, January 7–February 10, 1974, no. 71, as Bark and Schooner (Italian Salt Bark). Traveled to: University of Nebraska Art Gallery, Lincoln, February 25–March 31, 1974.
1978 Norfolk Arts Center
Norfolk Arts Center, Nebraska, Master Works of Twentieth Century American Painting, December 17, 1978–January 26, 1979, no. 20, as Bark and Schooner (Italian Salt Bark).
1980 Henry Art Gallery
Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, American Impressionism, January 3–March 2, 1980, pp. 15 ill. in b/w, 68, as Bark and Schooner (Italian Salt Bark). Traveled to: Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, March 9–May 4, 1980; Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, May 16–June 22, 1980; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, July 1–August 31, 1980.
1984 Madison Art Center
Madison Art Center, Wisconsin, The Seasons: American Impressionist Painting, December 8, 1984–January 3, 1985, no. 51, as Bark and Schooner.
1987 Spanierman
Spanierman Gallery, New York, Twachtman in Gloucester: His Last Years, 1900–1902, May 12–June 13, 1987. (Exhibition catalogue: Boyle 1987); (Exhibition catalogue: Gerdts 1987); (Exhibition catalogue: Hale 1987); (Exhibition catalogue: Peters 1987), no. 12, as Bark and Schooner.
1990 Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation
Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation, Villa Favorita, Lugano-Castagnola, Switzerland, Masterworks of American Impressionism, July 22–October 28, 1990, no. 34, pp. 90–91 ill, in color, 158, as Bark and Schooner (Italian Salt Bark).
Literature
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery 1933
Art Collection Catalogue, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery. Lincoln, Nebr.: University of Nebraska Press, 1933, pp. 20, 27, as Bark and Schooner.
Martin 1948
Martin, Don. "Landscape Paintings Shown in Exhibit from Nebraska." Grinnell Scarlet and Black (February 20, 1948), as Bark and Schooner.
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. 268, 270 ill. in b/w (fig. 57); vol. 2, p. 540 (catalogue A, no. 38), as Italian Salt Bark. (Hale concordance).
Art Journal 1964
"The Art Collections of the University of Nebraska." Art Journal 24 (Fall 1964), p. 44, as Bark and Schooner.
Boyle 1980
Boyle, Richard. "John Henry Twachtman: Tone Poems on Canvas." Antiques World 3 (December 1980), p. 69, as Bark and Schooner.
Gerdts 1980
Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. Seattle: Henry Art Gallery, 1980. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 15 ill. in b,/w, 68, as Bark and Schooner (Italian Salt Bark).
Gerdts 1984
Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. New York: Abbeville, 1984, p. 192 ill. in b/w, as Bark and Schooner (Italian Salt Bark).
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), p. 13, as Bark and Schooner.
Peters 1987
Peters, Lisa N. "Catalogue." 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. Exhibition catalogue (1987 Spanierman), pp. 72–73 ill. in color, as Bark and Schooner.
Schwartz 1987
Schwartz, Marvin. "Twachtman in Gloucester: His Last Years, 1900-1902." Antiques & The Arts Weekly, May 19, 1987, p. 55 ill. in b/w, as Bark and Schooner (Italian Salt Bark).
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery 1988
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery. The American Painting Collection of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery Published on Occasion of the Centennial of the Nebraska Art Association, 1888–1988. Lincoln, Nebr.: Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, 1988. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 188–89, ill. in color, 355 ill. in b/w, as Bark and Schooner (Italian Salt Bark).
Gerdts 1990–II
Gerdts, William H. Masterworks of American Impressionism. Lugano-Castagnola, Switzerland: Fondazione Thyssen-Bornemisza, 1990. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 90–91 ill. in color, 158, as Bark and Schooner (Italian Salt Bark).
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. 476; vol. 2, p. 995 ill. in b/w (fig. 495), as Bark and Schooner (Italian Salt Bark).
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. 157 ill. in color, as Bark and Schooner (Italian Salt Bark).
Commentary

This painting is featured in one of the twenty-four charcoal sketches Twachtman sent to his son Alden, to identify paintings he had created in Gloucester during the summer of 1900 (D.1414). On the verso of the sketch, he wrote: “This is the best thing I ever painted.” He included the painting with the title Italian Barque in his January 1901 exhibition in Chicago, however it does not seem to have been commented on by reviewers. It is probable that the painting sold in Chicago, because there is no evidence that it was on view in the three shows of Twachtman’s work held subsequently that year.

The painting's arrangement recalls the artist's French period painting Sailing Boats, Dieppe Harbor, ca. 1884 (OP.708), in which he also represented a larger and smaller vessel in broadside at the center of the canvas, so that their forms establish the design rather than being simply motifs within it. In the present work, the larger of the two vessels is a three-masted Italian salt bark, a type of ship used to export salted fish from Gloucester to the Dutch colony of Surinam in Guiana. Its enormity is apparent by its contrast with the smaller vessel beside it and the height of its masts relative to the silhouettes of buildings on the shore. 

Selected Literature

From Peters 1987

Twachtman conveys the bark’s shape as well as that of the small schooner in front of it. Water and reflections are handled with rapid touches to suggest the great depth of the ocean and to bring out the long shadows cast by the masts in late afternoon light. A critic may have been considering Bark and Schooner in 1901 when he or she wrote that, “Twachtman’s canvases are never overworked . . . it is this very quality and strength of the brushwork that keeps them graceful and charming . . . Every brushmark tells his knowledge of drawing and technique enable him to paint rapidly and directly.”[1]

[1] New York Tribune 1889–I.