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John Henry Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné
An online catalogue by Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D., in collaboration with the Greenwich Historical Society

Catalogue Entry

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Keywords
OP.303
New York Harbor
1879
Oil on canvas
14 x 24 1/2 in. (35.6 x 62.2 cm)
Signed, dated, and inscribed lower left: Twachtman [indistinct] / N.Y. '79
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, Gift of Doris and Shouky Shaheen (2020.61)
Provenance
William J. Baer;
to William T. Evans, 1913;
to (American Art Association, New York, Evans Sale, March 31, 1913, lot 47);
to N. B. Thompson;
(American Art Association, May 9–11, 1916, lot 47);
(Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, April 20, 1979, lot 44);
(Selkirk Galleries, St. Louis, December 2–4, 1983);
private collection;
(Christie's New York, December 4, 1992, lot 83);
to Doris and Shouky Shaheen, 1992;
gift to present collection, 2020.
Exhibitions
1913 American Art Galleries
American Art Galleries, New York, The Private Collection of American Paintings Formed by the Widely Known Amateur William T. Evans, Esq. of New York, March 31–April 2, 1913, no. 47, as New York Harbor.
Literature
American Art Association 1913
Private Collection Formed by the Widely Known Amateur William T. Evans. Auction catalogue, March 3–April 2, 1913. New York: American Art Association, 1913, lot 47, as New York Harbor.
American Art Association 1916
Valuable Ancient and Modern Paintings. Auction catalogue. May 9–11, 1916. New York: American Art Association, 1916, lot 47, as New York Harbor.
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. 454 (catalogue G, no. 239 [based on dimensions, but provenance is incorrect]), as New York Harbor. (Hale concordance).
Antiques 1983–III
Antiques 124 (November 1983), 965 ill. in b/w, as New York Harbor.
Christie's, New York 1992–III
Important American Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture of the 18th, 19th, and 20th Centuries. Auction catalogue, December 4, 1992. New York: Christie's, 1992, lot 83 ill. in color, as New York Harbor.
Commentary

Dated 1879 and inscribed “N.Y." this painting is a view of Communipaw Bay in Jersey City, an area known as South Cove (subsequently landfilled), looking west. The buildings, several stories in height, in the left distance are similar to those in The Shore (OP.312), representing apartment buildings erected for the city's growing population, consisting of many immigrants working in the area's factories. On the horizon line at the work's center is the Bergen Baptist Church, organized in 1870 (and constructed between 1871 and 1890), also depicted in The Shore, and in the etching, Harbor with Barges (E.310). Twachtman's high vantage point, indicated in the small vessel with two passengers near the foreground, enabled him to encompass a scene of considerable breadth and distance along the fully developed waterfront.  

The painting's first owner was the artist's childhood friend, William J. Baer, from whom it was acquired by the noted collector William T. Evans. It was included in the sale of Evans's collection and sold to an unknown individual named N. B. Thompson. It was again at auction at the American Art Association in 1916. Its subsequent ownership until it reappeared in 1979 is unknown.

Selected Literature

From American Art Association 1913

. . . a comprehensive view of a modest stretch of the waterfront of a busy and varied New York of a few years ago. Vessels of moderate size and many types are lined up along the shore, which extends back on the left and across the picture. In the foreground on the left, before a red-roofed wharf building, a black schooner is tied to the pier, unloading, her heavy mainsail up, and jibs and fore-stays sail merely stopped down, but not furled in the quiet air. Tugs, lighters, sows, and steamers make up the mixed company at the wharves, occasionally a tall factory building rising over them above the lower buildings of the waterfront, and at the right in the distance, a warship is indicated by her white fighting tops. The water is gray and mottled, and a white sail and one or two small boats are seen on it under a gray sky with faint traces of blue.