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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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Additional Images
The River, ca. 1884 (OP.720). Fig. 1. The River with location annotations.
Fig. 1. The River with location annotations.
The River, ca. 1884 (OP.720). Fig. 2. Arques River Valley, near Martin-Église, looking southeast, 2019.
Fig. 2. Arques River Valley, near Martin-Église, looking southeast, 2019.
Image: Philippe Gautrot
The River, ca. 1884 (OP.720). Fig. 3. Arques River Valley, near Martin-Église, looking southeast, 2019.
Fig. 3. Arques River Valley, near Martin-Église, looking southeast, 2019.
Image: Phiippe Gautrot
Related Work
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Keywords
OP.720
The River
ca. 1884
Oil on canvas
18 1/4 x 22 1/4 in. (46.4 x 56.5 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman
Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Daniel J. Terra Collection (1989.1)
Image: ©Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago
Provenance
(Vose);
to George Herbert Webster, Haverhill, Massachusetts, 1919;
to Webster Estate, Haverhill, Massachusetts;
by descent to Clifford L. Webster;
(Milch);
Addison M. Metcalf, Newtown, Connecticut, by 1957;
(Milch);
Jo Ann and Julian Ganz Jr., Los Angeles, by 1973;
(Davis & Long Company, New York, 1980);
private collection, California;
through (Berry-Hill Galleries, New York, by 1987);
to Daniel J. Terra;
to present collection, 1989.
Exhibitions
1919 Macbeth
Macbeth Gallery, New York, Paintings by John H. Twachtman, January 1919, no. 11, as The River.
1919–I Vose
Vose Gallery, Boston, Exhibition of Selected Works by John H. Twachtman, January 27–February 15, 1919, no. 1, as The River.
1919–II Vose
R. C. & N. M. Vose, Boston, Exhibition of Paintings by J. H. Twachtman, November 10–22, 1919, as The River, not listed in the catalogue.
1973 Santa Barbara Museum of Art
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California, American Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings from the Collection of JoAnn and Julian Ganz, Jr., June 23–July 22, 1973, no. 70, n.p. ill. in b/w, as The River.
1992 Musée d'art Américain Giverny
Musée d'art Américain Giverny, France, Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915, June 1–November 29, 1992, no. 49, p. 211 ill. in color, as The River.
Literature
Oliver 1919
Oliver, Jean Nutting. "Canvasses by Twachtman on View." Boston Sunday Advertiser and American, February 2, 1919, p. E3, as The River.
Phillips 1919
Phillips, Duncan. "Twachtman—An Appreciation." International Studio 66 (February 1919), p. cvii ill. in b/w, as The River.
Downes 1919–I
D[ownes], W[illiam] H[owe]. "Twachtman's Landscapes." Boston Evening Transcript, January 29, 1919, as The River.
McCormick 1923
McCormick, William B. "Summer Show at Knoedler's is Devoted to American Art." New York American 19 (July 1923), p. M9, as The River.
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. 1, pp. 205–6 ill. in b/w (fig. 27); vol. 2, p. 566 (catalogue A, no. 498), as The River. (Hale concordance).
Gerdts 1992
Gerdts, William H. Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915. Evanston, Ill.: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992, pp. 210–11 ill. in color, as The River.
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. 201; vol. 2, p. 711 ill. in b/w (fig. 176), as The River.
Commentary

When The River was included in an exhibition of Twachtman's work at Vose Gallery, Boston, in 1919, the critic William Howe Downes described it as a view of Arques-la-Bataille. However, its site was not verified until 2019, when it was identified by Philippe Gautrot, founder and director of the Académie Bach, Arques-la-Bataille, France. In the work, it is clear that Twachtman stood in the Arques River Valley, looking southwest, back toward the Normandy town of Arques-la-Bataille, where he resided with his family in the summer of 1884. This is evident in the small shape projecting upward from the hillcrest to the left of the work's center, which represents the ruins of the castle, situated high above the town (depicted in Chateau d'Arques, OP.172). Below it and to its right in the base of the hills is the Gothic church in the town (featured in Church at Arques, OP.171). The position of these structures is made clear in figure 1. Figures 2 and 3 are photographs of the landscape as it appears today. As they reveal, the castle is still visible, although the church is now hidden by trees. 

In another work, whose site was also recently identified, View from the Arques River Valley (OP.719), the castle and church are also in the distance and are more visible. This is the case because here Twachtman was farther to the north, so the structures were at a greater distance and harder to see. He probably delighted in the way that their spatial relationships and proportions seemed to change when he observed them from again from a different angle. In View from the Arques River Valley, the church appears to be almost directly below the castle whereas here it is to the castle's left.

As in View from the Arques River Valley, Twachtman used the castle and church to structure his composition, forming a cross-axial arrangement consisting of intersecting diagonals, each ending in the buildings. He formed one diagonal from his viewpoint in the work's left corner, which extends through the longest line of high grass to the right edge of the church. He established a second diagonal in the shoreline, which leads from right to left, ending in the castle. He marked the intersection with a small dark-brown shape that also serves as the point at which the embankment meets the valley, the water turns into marsh, and the foreground joins the background. By indicating the construction of the painting within the work itself, Twachtman made his own decision-making an element of the design, while using the rules of perspective for a decorative result. 

In the work, his vigorous and direct paint handling in the foreground suggests that he created the work directly, standing amid the wildflowers and gazing out toward the hazy distance. It is probably due to his low vantage point that the narrow waterway seemed to flatten out, mirroring the sky and its broken clouds. 

[1] See Church at Arques (OP.711) and Chateau d'Arques (OP.712). Reviews indicate that an unlocated painting, A French Garden, included in Twachtman's 1885 exhibition at Chase's Gallery, Boston, also featured the church. 

Selected Literature

From Downes 1919–I

“The River” (1) is another example of Twachtman's art in which he manifests much of the same delightful vein of serene and subtle landscape sentiment. A very attractive feature of this composition is the foreground where, by the riverside, a number of wild flowers are growing. Again, we note the extreme delicacy and distinction of the touch in the way the tangle of blossoms and foliage and stems is put in, never with any trace of indecision or labor, and always with the poetic suggestiveness of a reverent devotee of nature. Every detail is excellently made for itself and yet no detail claims more than its proper share of importance with regard to the ensemble. “The River” was  . . . painted in Arques de [sic] Bataille in 1885.

From Oliver 1919

In "The River" another phase of nature is shown. In tones of quietest gray browns and brown grays, with passages of grayed greens and ochre the extent of the country is seen. The river moves unobtrusively along and in the foreground the rough vegetation of the place is easily brushed in.

From Hale 1957

The River illustrates perhaps more strongly this controlled enthusiasm. As in the Jones painting [OP.730] there is no sacrifice of the new ability to convey the feeling and “realness” of the scene, although the dashing quality of the painting in the foreground is even more pronounced. Because of this technical warmth the artist has managed to convey the impression of a sunlit meadow, without having to resort to literalness of detail [p. 205].