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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Keywords
OP.1505
View of the Brush House, Cos Cob, Connecticut
Alternate titles: First Leaves; The Artist's Home; The Artist's House
ca. 1901–02
Oil on canvas
30 1/8 x 30 1/4 in. (76.5 x 76.8 cm)
Stamped lower left: Twachtman Sale [1903 estate sale]
Dayton Art Institute, Ohio, Gift of Mr. William P. Patterson, (88.66)
Exhibitions
1903–I American Art Galleries
American Art Galleries, New York, Sale of the Work of the Late John H. Twachtman, exhibition and auction, March 19–24, 1903, no. 94, as First Leaves.
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. 39, as The Artist's House, lent by Mr. and Mrs. William P. Patterson, Dayton, Ohio; note incorrect dimensions.
2020–21 Taft Museum of Art
Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, A Splendid Century: Cincinnati Art 1820–1920, October 3, 2020–January 24, 2021, as View of the Brush House, Cos Cob, Connecticut.
Literature
New-York Tribune 1903–I
"Art Exhibitions: The Twachtman, Colman and Burritt Collections." New-York Tribune, March 21, 1903, p. 9, as First Leaves.
Sun 1903–II
"Twachtman Pictures, $16,610." Sun (New York), March 25, 1903, p. 5, as First Leaves.
New York Times 1903–III
"Twachtman Picture Sale." New York Times, March 25, 1903, p. 5, as First Leaves.
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. 470 (catalogue G, no. 381), as First Leaves. (Hale concordance).
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. 468; vol. 2, p. 978 ill. in b/w (fig. 478), as The Artist's Home.
Commentary

Twachtman's view here was from near the Holley House in Cos Cob, looking northeast. Through trees and new foliage, the Brush House is at the right, its double red chimneys making its presence visible when it might not be otherwise.[1] The near elm tree—seen as well in two other spring views of this subject, Cos Cob (OP.1506) and October (OP.1507)—is the central motif in the square composition, in which Twachtman used his brush with a new, almost agressive freedom, allowing accidental lines and dabs to remain in the finished work.  

This painting was included in the artist's 1903 estate sale as First Leaves, from which it sold to J. E. Eddy for $300. A writer for the New-York Tribune mentioned the painting as among those Twachtman had produced that were “exquisite and distinguished.” The writer went on to state “Witness the tenderly painted ‘First Leaves,’ with its beautiful effect of atmosphere subtly emerging from details brushed in broadly and hastily.” Whether or not Twachtman assigned the title of First Leaves to this painting, the image is suggestive of the early spring in the litheness of the foliage, which appears in an organic process of growth in the painting itself. In fact, Twachtman was often in residence at the Holley House in March–April 1901, when it is likely that he created this work.

[1] Built between 1751 and 1784, the Brush House descended in the family of colonial settlers in Greenwich involved in the shipping trade and was occupied during Twachtman’s years in Greenwich by Joseph E. B. Brush (1833–1914), an eccentric, retired individual who lived alone. See Larkin 2001–I, pp. 119–25.