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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Venice, 1877 (OP.201). Fig. 1. "S. Trovaso's Canal," in Pompeo Molmenti, Calli E Canali In Venezia (Venice: Ferd. Ongania, 1890–91), plate 38, perhaps looking southwest with the Church of Angelo San Raffaele in the right distance.
Fig. 1. "S. Trovaso's Canal," in Pompeo Molmenti, Calli E Canali In Venezia (Venice: Ferd. Ongania, 1890–91), plate 38, perhaps looking southwest with the Church of Angelo San Raffaele in the right distance.
Venice, 1877 (OP.201). Fig. 2. Francesco Guardi, View of the Giudecca Canal and the Zattere, 1757-58, oil on canvas, 28 x 47 in. (71.3 x 119 cm), Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, on loan to the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.
Fig. 2. Francesco Guardi, View of the Giudecca Canal and the Zattere, 1757-58, oil on canvas, 28 x 47 in. (71.3 x 119 cm), Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, on loan to the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.
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Keywords
OP.201
Venice
1877
Oil on pressed board
13 3/16 x 22 3/4 in. (33.5 x 57.8 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: J. H. Twachtmann / Venice 187[7]
Cincinnati Art Museum, Gift of Harold W. Nichols (1964.162)
Exhibitions
1947 Taft Museum
Taft Museum, Cincinnati, Earlier American Paintings of Mr. and Mrs. Harold W. Nichols, opened April 26, 1947, no. 5, as Venice.
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. 7, as Venice, lent by Mr. Harold Nichols, Cincinnati.
1989 Danforth Museum of Art
Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, Massachusetts, Explorations in Realism: 1870–1880. Frank Duveneck and His Circle from Bavaria to Venice, April 21–July 2, 1989, no. 102, as Venice.
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, pp. 501 (catalogue G, no. 642), 575 (catalogue A, no. 647), as Venice. (Hale concordance).
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. 64–65 ill. in b/w, as Venice.
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. 53; vol. 2, p. 595 ill. in b/w (fig. 36), as Venice.
Butler 2019
Butler, Eliza. "John Henry Twachtman and the Materiality of Snow." American Art 33 (Fall 2019), p. 77 ill. in color (fig. 2), as Venice.
Commentary

The painting's date is indistinct, but appears to be 1877, indicating that it was one of the earliest works Twachtman rendered on his first trip to Venice, lasting approximately from the spring of 1877 to the spring of 1878. His view was probably looking west from a bridge on the Zattere or from the water along the Giudecca Canal to a section at the tip of the island where cruise ships dock today. The tower with an onion-shaped dome in the right middle distance is likely to be the campanile of the Church of Angelo San Raffaele (rebuilt in 1743–49) (fig. 1). 

Here Twachtman took his cue from the Venetian vedute tradition, following in the mode of works such as a painting of the Giudecca Canal by Francesco Guardi of 1757–58 (fig. 2). Like Guardi, Twachtman established a far-reaching view across the water. However, the viewer's experience in the two works is quite different. Guardi's high, overhead angle makes the viewer into a spectator, perceiving the Grand Canal as a stageset. Twachtman creates a more immediate experience of the scene. Featuring an empty canal instead of the active waterway portrayed by Guardi, he draws attention to the light of the sunset on the water's surface, where the buildings and boats along the shore cast pink and yellow reflections. The painting is suggestive of Henry James’s description of such a uniquely Venetian effect in an 1882 article in Century magazine: "If we were asked what is leading color at Venice we would say pink. . . . It is a faint, shimmering airy, watery pink, the bright sea-light seems to flash with it, and the pale whitish-green of lagoon and canal to drink it in.”[1]  

The painting's first-known owner was J. G. Brown (1831–1913), the well-known painter of New York street urchins and outdoor life in New England. The painting was inherited by Mrs. R. A. Johnston, one of Brown's five children.[2] 

Restored in 2018, this painting's conservation is discussed in a blog post on the Cincinnati Art Museum website.

[1] Henry James, "Venice," Century 25 (new series 3) (No.vember 1882), p. 12. 

[2] An article in the Vermont Tribune on July 14, 1905 states: "Mrs. R. A. Johnston of New York has been with her father, J. G. Brown, at the Ludlow House this week." ("Personals," Vermont Tribune, July 14, 1905, p. 3.) Another article on the same day described the visit of "J. G. Brown of New York, president of the Artist's Fund society . . . [who] has long been famous as a character painter of New York street boys. ("Noted Artist in Town," Vermont Tribune, July 14, 1905, p. 1.)