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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View from the Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut, ca. 1901–02 (OP.1512). Fig. 1. View looking north from the Holley House, Cos Cob, over the Mill Dam bridge and road, with the Palmer & Duff store at the right side of the road, after 1899. Archives, Greenwich Historical Society.
Fig. 1. View looking north from the Holley House, Cos Cob, over the Mill Dam bridge and road, with the Palmer & Duff store at the right side of the road, after 1899. Archives, Greenwich Historical Society.
Keywords
OP.1512
View from the Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut
Alternate titles: Bridge in Spring; First Leaves; From the Holley House; From the Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut; Holly House Porch, Cos Cob; View from the Holley House
ca. 1901–02
Oil on canvas
30 x 30 in. (76.2 x 76.2 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman–
Private collection
Image: Roz Akin
Exhibitions
1908 Macbeth
Macbeth Gallery, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by a Group of American Artists (Deceased), Copley to Whistler, March 11–24, 1908, no. 30, as Bridge in Spring.
1914–II Macbeth probably
Macbeth Galleries, New York, A Group of Selected Paintings by American Artists, opened April 21, 1914, no. 63, as Holly House Porch, Cos Cob.
1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition
Department of Fine Arts, San Francisco, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, February 20–December 4, 1915, no. 4066, as Bridge in Spring.
1917–I Knoedler probably
M. Knoedler & Co, New York, Tenth Annual Summer, Exhibition of Paintings by American Artists, 1917, no. 38, as Bridge in Spring.
1918 Detroit Institute of Arts probably
Detroit Institute of Arts, Fourth Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists, April 9–30, 1918, no. 121, as Bridge in Spring.
1919 Macbeth
Macbeth Gallery, New York, Paintings by John H. Twachtman, January 1919, no. 15, pp. 17, 19 ill. ill. in b/w, as From the Holley House.
1980 Hurlbutt Gallery
William Benton Museum, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut and American Impressionism, March 20–May 31, 1980, no. 62, p. 18 ill. in color, as From the Holley House.
1989–II National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., District of Columbia, John Twachtman: Connecticut Landscapes, October 15, 1989–January 28, 1990. (Exhibition catalogue: Chotner 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Pyne 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Peters 1989–I), no. 25, as From the Holley House. Traveled to: Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, March 18–May 20, 1990.
1999 High Museum of Art
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist, February 26–May 21, 2000. (Peters 1999–I), no. 54, as From the Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut. Traveled to: Cincinnati Art Museum, June 6–September 5, 1999; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, October 16, 1999–January 2, 2000.
2001 National Academy of Design
National Academy of Design, New York, The Cos Cob Art Colony: Impressionists on the Connecticut Shore, February 13–May 13, 2001. (Larkin 2001–I), as View from the Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut. Traveled to: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, June 17–September 16, 2001; Denver Art Museum, October 27, 2001–January 20, 2002.
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. 65, as View from the Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut. Traveled to: Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, July 13–October 29, 2006.
2021–22 Dixon Gallery and Gardens
Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee, America's Impressionism: Echoes of a Revolution, January 23–April 11, 2021. (Burdan 2020); (Burns 2020); (Sharp 2020), no. 22, pp. 144, ill. in color, 197 ill. in color, as From the Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut. Traveled to: San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas, June 11–September 21, 2021; Brandywine River Museum of Art, Chadd's Ford, Pennsylvania, October 9, 2021–January 9, 2022.
Literature
Boston Globe 1908
"Art and Artists." Boston Globe, April 12, 1908, p. 44, as Bridge in Spring.
Britton 1919
Britton, James. "Exhibition Now On: Twachtmans at Macbeth's." American Art News 17 (January 11, 1919), p. 2, as From the Holley House.
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. 460 (catalogue G, no. 299,), as From the Holley House. (Hale concordance).
Pierce 1976
Pierce, Patricia Jobe. The Ten. Concord, N.H.: Rumford, 1976, p. 142 ill. in color, as From the Holley House.
Peters 1989–I
Peters, Lisa N. "Twachtman's Greenwich Paintings: Context and Chronology." In John Twachtman: Connecticut Landscapes, by Deborah Chotner, Lisa N. Peters, and Kathleen A. Pyne. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1989. Exhibition catalogue (1989–II National Gallery of Art), p. 37, as From the Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut.
Larkin 1990
Larkin, Susan G. On Home Ground: Elmer Livingston MacRae at the Holley House. Greenwich, Conn.: The Bruce Museum, 1990. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 26–28 ill. in b/w (fig. 8), as View from the Holley House.
May 1990
May, Stephen. "Twachtman at the Wadsworth Atheneum." Art Times (March 1990), p. 9, as From the Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut.
Schwendenwien 1990
Schwendenwien, Jude. "Twachtman: A Painter of Landscapes." Hartford Courant, May 6, 1990, p. G6, as From the Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut.
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. 468–69; vol. 2, p. 980 ill. in b/w (fig. 480), as From the Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut.
Larkin 1996
Larkin, Susan G. "'A Regular Rendezvous for Impressionists:' The Cos Cob Art Colony 1882–1920." Ph.D. dissertation, 1996. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microforms, 1996, pp. xii, p. 58–59, 170, 320 ill. in b/w (2.22), as View from the Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut.
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), pp. 148 ill. in color (detail), 150, 153 ill. in color, as View from the Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut.
Larkin 2001–I
Larkin, Susan G. The Cos Cob Art Colony: Impressionists on the Connecticut Shore. New York: National Academy of Design in association with Yale University, 2001. Exhibition catalogue (2001 National Academy of Design), pp. 81, 84 ill. in color, as View from the Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut.
Larkin 2001–II
Larkin, Susan G. "The Cos Cob Art Colony." American Art Review 13 (February 2001), p. 102 ill. in color, as View from the Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut.
Gerdts 2003–I
Gerdts, William H. The Golden Age of American Impressionism. New York: Watson-Guptill, 2003, pp. 13, 67, 71 ill. in color, as View from the Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut.
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. 208–9 ill. in color, 210–11, 214, as View from the Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut.
Burdan 2020
Burdan, Amanda C. "Anticipating a Revolution: the Preconditions of American Impressionism." In America's Impressionism: Echoes of a Revolution, Amanda C. Burdan, ed. Memphis, Tenn.: Dixon Gallery and Gardens, 2020. Exhibition catalogue (2021–22 Dixon Gallery and Gardens), p. 26, as From the Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut.
Sharp 2020
Sharp, Kevin. "Independence and the Durability of American Impressionism." In America's Impressionism: Echoes of a Revolution, Amanda C. Burdan, ed. Memphis, Tenn.: Dixon Gallery and Gardens. Exhibition catalogue (2021–22 Dixon Gallery and Gardens), p. 106, as From the Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut.
Commentary

In View from the Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut, Twachtman depicted the landscape he observed from the porch of the Holley House (see Glossary of Names), looking across the millpond and the dam that was also a bridge. In the foreground are the ledges on the Holley House porch from which the bare branches of lilac bushes blend into the atmospheric motifs on the opposite shore. To the north are houses, probably mostly fronting on the Mianus River (east of the millpond). Here, Twachtman omitted the horizontal form of the shipyard, leaving in only the red-hued store that stood to its east (fig. 1). This vantage point only became visible after the tide-powered grist mill run by Edward Holley was destroyed by a fire in 1899, and the painting was probably rendered in the spring of 1901, when Twachtman stayed often at the Holley House. 

Twachtman portrayed most of his images of this subject during the winter (see OP.1513, OP.1514, OP.1515, OP.1516, and OP.1517), but here the scene appears set in the early spring, when some snow was still on the ground while only a hint of coming leaves are present in the lilac bushes. Twachtman captured this transitional time of year through a dynamic arrangement of cross-axial and overlapping shapes, including the active diagonal of the bridge and the store in the right background, which comes forward in the design due to its red tone.

View from the Holley House, Cos Cob remained in the artist’s estate at least through 1908, when it was included in an exhibition at Macbeth Gallery.

Selected Literature

From Larkin 2001–I

From the Holley House (fig. 47) is suffused with the warmth of new growth; its energetic diagonals and verticals and varied colors contrast with the quiet horizontals and subdued monochrome of Bridge in Winter [OP.1513]. Twachtman’s shift of vantage point may reflect a reluctance to include a relic of the past—the shipyard—in a celebration of nature’s rebirth [p. 81].