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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Keywords
OP.205
Venetian Sailing Vessel
Alternate title: Venetian Sketch
1878
Oil on canvas
15 1/4 x 10 1/2 in. (38.7 x 26.7 cm)
Signed, dated, and inscribed lower right: Venice / J. H. Twachtman 78
Private collection
Image: Roz Akin
Exhibitions
1879 Society of American Artists probably
Kurtz Gallery, New York, Second Annual Exhibition, Society of American Artists, March 10–29, 1879, no. 118, as Venetian Sketch.
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. 4, as Venetian Sailing Vessel, shown only in New York. Traveled to: Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, July 13–October 29, 2006.
Literature
Carter 1879 probably
Carter, S[usan] N. "Exhibition of the Society of American Artists." Art Journal 5 (March 1879), p. 157, as Venetian Sketch.
New York Herald 1879–I probably
"Fine Arts: Exhibition of the Society of American Artists, Second Notice." New York Herald, March 17, 1879, p. 8, as Venetian Sketch.
New York Times 1879–I probably
"The American Artists, French Teachers and American Imitators." New York Times, March 16, 1879, p. 7, as Venetian Sketch.
Peters 1992
Peters, Lisa N. "John H. Twachtman: A 'Modern' in Venice, 1877-1878." In The Italian Presence in American Art, 1860–1920, ed. Irma B. Jaffe. New York: Fordham University Press, 1992, pp. 69-71, 71 ill. in b/w, as Venetian Sailing Vessel.
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. 56; vol. 2, p. 603 ill. in b/w (fig. 45), as Venetian Sailing Vessel.
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. 86–87 ill. in color, as Venetian Sailing Vessel.
Christie's, New York 2018–II
American Art Online. Auction catalogue, November 14–20, 2018. New York: Christie's, 2018, lot 168 ill. in color, as Venetian Sailing Vessel.
Doyle 2023
Impressionist & Modern Art, Post-War Art, and Contemporary Art. Auction catalogue. May 17, 2023. New York: Doyle, 2023, lot 514 (not sold), as Venetian Sailing Vessel.
Commentary

This painting—inscribed “Venice” and dated “78”—is a view looking west along Venice's Fondamenta delle Zattere, just beyond the eighteenth-century Church of the Gesuati. In the late nineteenth century, cargo ships too large to pass through the Grand Canal anchored here. Twachtman's choice of a vertical support matched his subject, and he focused on the pattern of sunlight and shadow on the slack sails of the large square-rigged sailing ship, seen stern-on. His viewpoint was perhaps from a bridge, which allowed him to look far down the fondamenta as well as to take note of a small figure coming forward along the quay receding sharply below him.  

The painting was probably one of two works that Twachtman exhibited as Venetian Sketch in the second exhibition of the Society of American Artists, held in March 1879.[1] In her review of the show for the Art Journal, Susan N. Carter wrote that "the great hull of a vessel in one of the Venetian sketches was chiefly valuable as a study of colour in a scale of black-and-white into which were woven reds and yellows of sails." The critic for the New York Times mentioned that of Twachtman's five works in the exhibition, the two marines were the best. 

[1] From descriptions in reviews, the other work titled Venetian Sketch depicted houses on a shore, with a line of ships drawn up close to them.