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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Ship and Dock, Venice, ca. 1878 (OP.206). 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.
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Keywords
OP.206
Ship and Dock, Venice
Alternate titles: Fishing Village; Ship and Dock; Waterfront
ca. 1878
Oil on canvas
14 3/4 x 10 5/8 in. (37.5 x 26.9 cm)
Location unknown
Image: Roz Akin
Exhibitions
1958 Lyman Allyn Museum
Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, Connecticut, The Art of J. Frank Currier and Painters of the Munich School, February 9–March 9, 1958, no. 66, as Waterfront, 15 x 10 1/2 in. lent by Mr. and Mrs. G. Page Ely, Old Lyme.
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. 3, as Ship and Dock, Venice. Traveled to: Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, July 13–October 29, 2006.
2011 Spanierman
Spanierman Gallery, New York, Seeing Abstractly: Works on Paper and Small Oils by John Henry Twachtman, December 15, 2011–January 14, 2012. (Exhibition catalogue: Peters 2011), no. 1, as Ship and Dock, 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, p. 569 (catalogue A, no. 541), as Ship and Dock. (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. 67–68 ill. in b/w, as Ship and Dock, 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. 56; vol. 2, p. 601 ill. in b/w (fig. 43), as Ship and Dock, Venice.
Peters 2006–II
Peters, Lisa N. "Twachtman's Realist Art and the Aesthetic Liberation of Modern Life." In John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter", by Lisa N. Peters. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Spanierman), pp. 30 ill. in color (detail), 36, as Ship and Dock, Venice.
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. 84–85 ill. in color, as Ship and Dock, Venice.
Peters 2011
Peters, Lisa N. Seeing Abstractly: Works on Paper and Small Oils by John Henry Twachtman. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2011. Exhibition catalogue (2011 Spanierman), pp. 2 ill. in color, 12 ill. in color, as Ship and Dock, Venice.
Commentary

This is likely to be a view of the San Trovaso Canal. The church tower may be one of those on the Church of Angelo San Raffaele, in Dorsoduro, which Twachtman probably depicted as well at the lower right in Venice (OP.201). The canal and church could be those seen in a view of the san Trovaso Canal from Calli E Canali in Venezia (1890–91), that appeared with the caption: "one of the most picturesque localities in Venice although its edifices possess no artistic value" (fig. 1).  Here Twachtman situated the tower and dome at the apex of his design, its shape repeated in a chimney in one of the area's undistinguished buildings. The design is one in which Twachtman considered the relationship of figure to ground, balancing the dark silhouettes of the buildings and ship against the water and sky. The small white and red impasto shape at the work's center is probably a line of laundry. Its central place in the work suggests that it was Twachtman's plumb line, and he accentuated the reflective quality of the white shape by leaving his paint in a thick splotch on the surface. In the far right distance is a faint campanile, which may belong to the church of Santi Biagio e Cataldo, which was was restored in the eighteenth century and destroyed in 1882. 

The painting was among many works by Twachtman owned by Julian Alden Weir, but its early exhibition history is unknown.  

[1] Pompeo Molmenti, "Index," Calli E Canali in Venezia (Venice: Ferdinando Ongania, 1895), N.4., plate 38.