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.807
Connecticut Shore, Winter
Alternate titles: Snowbound; Winter, Gloucester Harbor
ca. 1888
Oil on canvas
24 x 30 in. (61 x 76.2 cm)
Signed lower left: Twachtmann
Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut, Gift of the Fine Arts Collection of The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company (2002.1.143)
Exhibitions
1888 Fifth Avenue Art Galleries probably
Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, New York, Paintings by American Artists Selected and Owned by Mr. Newman E. Montross of 1380 Broadway, New York, April 21–27, 1888, no. 58, as Snowbound.
1989 Wadsworth Atheneum
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, Connecticut Masters, Connecticut Treasures: The Collection of The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, April 1–May 21, 1989, pp. 19, 50 ill. in color, 105, as Connecticut Shore, Winter.
1997 Fleischer Museum
Fleischer Museum, Scottsdale, Arizona, East Meets West: American Impressionism, February 9–May 4, 1997, pp. 72 ill. in color, 83, as Connecticut Shore, Winter.
2002 Florence Griswold Museum
Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut, The American Artist in Connecticut: The Legacy of the Hartford Steam Boiler Collection, July 2, 2002–June 22, 2003, no. 44, as Connecticut Shore, Winter.
Literature
Sun 1888–II probably
"Mr. N. E. Montross’s Sale of American Paintings." Sun (New York), April 25, 1888, p. 4, as Snowbound.
New-York Tribune 1888–III probably
"The Montross Collection." New-York Tribune, April 27, 1888, p. 4, as Snowbound.
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. 492 (catalogue G, no. 558b) (probably), as Snowbound. (Hale concordance).
Sotheby's New York 1985–I
Important American 18th-, 19th-, and 20th-Century Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture. Auction catalogue, May 30, 1985. New York: Sotheby's, 1985, lot 159 ill. in color, as Winter, Gloucester Harbor.
Spencer 1989
Spencer, Harold. "Connecticut's Art and Artists, (1880–1920)." In Connecticut Masters, Connecticut Treasures. Hartford, Conn.: Wadsworth Atheneum, 1989, pp. 19, 50 ill. in color, 105, as Connecticut Shore, Winter.
Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company 1991
Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company. Connecticut Masters: The Fine Arts and Antiques Collections of The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company. Hartford, Conn.: The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, 1991, p. 171 ill. in color, as Connecticut Shore, Winter.
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. 248; vol. 2, p. 776 ill. in b/w (fig. 248), as Connecticut Shore, Winter.
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), p. 77 ill. in color, as Connecticut Shore, Winter.
Gustafson 2001
Gustafson, Eleanor H. "Museum Accessions." Antiques 167 (November 2001), p. 590 ill. in color, as Connecticut Shore, Winter.
Florence Griswold Museum 2002
Andersen, Jeffrey W. and Hildegard Cummings. The American Artist in Connecticut: The Legacy of the Hartford Steam Boiler Collection. Old Lyme, Conn.: Florence Griswold Museum, 2002. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 102–3 ill. in color, as Connecticut Shore, Winter.
Commentary

This painting is related in subject and style to Snowbound (OP.806) and it also features ships locked in by ice in a harbor. At the left, the horizontal timbers of a finger pier recede, a low sailing barge and a large black ship seen from the bow docked alongside it. Nearby are two foreshortened schooners, their sails hoisted in the calm air. In the foreground, an abandoned rowboat establishes a sense of scale, resembling a floating keg in a Dutch seascape.[1] 

The painting is possibly the work titled Snowbound in the Second Annual Exhibition and Sale of Paintings by American Artists, Selected and Owned by Mr. Newman E. Montross of 1380 Broadway, New York (see Exhibitions). A reviewer for the New York Sun commented: “Twachtman has never been more wholly picturesque than in ‘Snowbound,’ which has a couple of ice imprisoned vessels for a motive.” The New York Tribune reviewer wrote: "Mr. W. M. Chase’s bright 'study on the East River,' is one of the pleasant things of the collection and Mr. Twachtman’s large 'Snowbound' is certainly one of the serious attempts. The blue-snow shadows so popular for the last few years, appear as an incident in a strongly-drawn picture of the black bulls and naked spars of ships ice-bound at the wharf."

If the painting was sold from the Montross sale, its purchaser is unknown. The painting's earliest recorded owner is the artist William Sergeant Kendall (1869–1938), in whose family it remained until 1985. When this painting was in the collection of the Hartford Steam Boiler Company, from 1985 to 2001, it acquired the title of Connecticut Shore, Winter. However, its location has yet to be pinpointed. It is clear from this painting and the aforementioned Snowbound that Twachtman was drawn to "Snowbound" as a title, using it for an image of ships and then reusing it in the 1890s for views of his Greenwich home locked in by heavy snows. 

[1] For consultation on this scene and its vessels, I would like to thank Craig Bruns, chief curator, Independence Seaport Museum, Philadelphia. In Bruns's opinion, the scene is inconsistent with the waterfront on the Delaware River in Philadelphia, for which there is evidence that Twachtman rendered in 1888.