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.706
Canal Scene
Alternate title: Sketch
ca. 1883–85
Oil on canvas
15 x 17 13/16 in. (38.1 x 45.3 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman–
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Gift of the Estate of Sarah Wyman Whitman through Mrs. Henry Parkman (09.214)
Exhibitions
1972 California Palace of the Legion of Honor
California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, The Color of Mood: American Tonalism, 1880–1910, January 22–April 2, 1972, no. 45, as Canal Scene.
1976 Art Museum of South Texas
Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, 18th and 19th Century American Paintings from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, March 11, 1976–July 12, 1977, ill. in b/w (plate 22), as Canal Scene.
Literature
Clark 1924
Clark, Eliot. John Twachtman. New York: privately printed, 1924, pp. 39–40, as Sketch.
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. 544 (catalogue A, no. 117), as Canal Scene. (Hale concordance).
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 1969
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. American Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Museum of Fine Arts. Boston, 1969, vol. 1, pp. 273–74, as Canal Scene.
Troyen and Emans 1997
Troyen, Carol, and Charlotte Emans. American Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1997, p. 282 ill. in b/w, as Canal Scene.
Commentary

This painting relates in its subject matter to Mouth of the Seine (OP.705) and View of the Seine at Neuilly (OP.707). However, its location is unknown, while its title seems derived from the waterway, which is identified as a canal due to the barges moored at the near shore on the right. On the water, a punt, manned by a standing figure, transports a load of cargo, probably from the larger vessel beside it. His white shirt, a small accent in the work, stands out against the cool grays that fill the scene.

It is also possible that the painting was among the works Twachtman rendered of the Seine, near Paris, three of which were in his February 1885 show at J. Eastman Chase's Gallery, Boston: View on the Seine, (no. 7), On the Seine (no. 8), and Boats on the Seine (11). 

That the painting's first owner was the artist and art patron, Sarah Wyman Whitman (1842–1904), suggests that it was one of these works, as it could have been purchased from the show by Whitman. In 1885, she was living in Boston, where she had established Lily Glass Works, at 184 Boylston Street, a short distance across the Boston Common from Chase's Gallery at 7 Hamilton Place. 

Selected Literature

From Hale 1957

Similar in tonal theme [View of the Seine at Neuilly, OP.707] is the “Sketch” in the Boston Museum. The composition is squarer in proportion, with a rather low horizon, a group of dark barges against the river bank at the right, and a French village breaking the distant sky line. The painting is hardly more than a thin wash [vol 1, pp. 39–40].