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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
P.902
Study of a Head
ca. 1888–95
Pastel on tan paper
12 x 10 in. (30.5 x 25.4 cm)
Signed lower left: JHT
Brooklyn Museum, Museum Surplus Fund (25.417)
Provenance
Martha Twachtman, the artist's wife, Greenwich, Connecticut;
to (Macbeth, 1925);
to present collection, 1925.
Exhibitions
1932 Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by American Impressionists and Other Artists of the Period 1880–1900, January 18–February 28, 1932, no. 137, as Study of a Head.
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. 2, p. 588 (catalogue A, no. 958), as Study of a Head. (Hale concordance).
Brooklyn Museum 1984
Brooklyn Museum. American Watercolors, Pastels, Collages. New York: The Brooklyn Museum, 1984, p. 76 ill. in b/w, as Study of a Head.
Hale 1989
Hale, John Douglass. "Twachtman in Greenwich: The Figures." 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, p. 40 ill. in b/w, as Study of a Head.
Commentary

The subject is the artist's wife, Martha, seen in a thoughtful, casual moment rather than in a formal pose. Using the paper for the atmospheric background, Twachtman lets the viewer's imagination complete the work.