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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
Spring, ca. 1898 (OP.975). Fig. 1.John H. Twachtman, New York, to Joseph H. Gest, Cincinnati, May 14, 1901, Mary R. Schiff Library & Archives, Cincinnati Art Museum.
Fig. 1.John H. Twachtman, New York, to Joseph H. Gest, Cincinnati, May 14, 1901, Mary R. Schiff Library & Archives, Cincinnati Art Museum.
Related Work
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Keywords
OP.975
Spring
Alternate title: Early Spring
ca. 1898
Oil on canvas
30 1/8 x 25 in. (76.5 x 63.5 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman
The Macon and Joan Brock Collection, Virginia Beach, Virginia
Provenance
George F. Of, New York, by 1901;
(Kennedy Galleries, New York, by 1966);
(Campanile Galleries, Chicago);
Dr. and Mrs. Robert B. Smythe, New Orleans, by 1971;
(Christie's, New York, December 3, 1982, lot 158);
to private Collection, 1982;
to (Sotheby's, New York, March 6, 2019, lot 120);
to (Thomas Colville Fine Art, LLC, Guilford, Connecticut, 2019);
to present collection, 2019.
Exhibitions
1898 Ten American Painters probably
Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, First Exhibition: Ten American Painters, March 31–April 16, 1898, no. 36, as Early Spring.
1898 St. Botolph Club probably
St. Botolph Club, Boston, An Exhibition of Paintings by Ten American Painters, April 25–May 14, 1898, no. 46, as Early Spring.
1900–I St. Botolph Club
St. Botolph Club, Boston, Exhibition of Paintings by J. H. Twachtman and His Son, J. Alden Twachtman, February 26–March 13, 1900, no. 11, as Spring.
1901 Columbus Art School
Columbus Art School, Ohio, Exhibition of Paintings by John Twachtman, February 1901, as Spring.
1901 Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of the Works of John H. Twachtman, January 8–27, 1901, no. 13, as Spring.
1901–I Durand-Ruel
Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, Paintings and Pastels by John H. Twachtman, March 4–16, 1901, as Spring.
1901–I Cincinnati Art Museum
Cincinnati Art Museum, Exhibition of Sixty Paintings by Mr. John H. Twachtman, Formerly Resident in Cincinnati, April 12–May 16, 1901, no. 36, as Spring.
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. 45, as Spring, lent by Kennedy Galleries, New York.
1972 New Orleans Museum
New Orleans Museum, New Orleans Collects: A Selection of Works of Art Owned by New Orleanians, November 14, 1972–January 9, 1973, no. 179, as Spring.
1986 Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale
Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, In the Eye of the Beholder: South Florida Collectors' Choice, December 11, 1986–January 25, 1987, as Spring, incorrectly dated ca. 1920, lent by a private collector.
1992 Orlando Museum of Art
Orlando Museum of Art, Florida, Hidden Treasures: American Paintings from Florida Collections, January 4–February 23, 1992, no. 57, p. 43 ill. in color, as Spring.
2006 Spanierman
Spanierman Gallery, New York, John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter," May 4–June 24, 2006. (Nelson 2006); (Parkes 2006); (Peters 2006–I); (Peters 2006–II); (Peters 2006–III); (Peters 2006–IV), no. 46, as Spring, shown only in New York. Traveled to: Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, July 13–October 29, 2006.
Literature
Standard Union 1898
"Art News and Notes." Standard Union (Brooklyn), April 2, 1898, p. 6, as Early Spring.
Van Dyke 1898
V[an] D[yke], J[ohn] C. "Ten American Painters." New York Evening Post, April 1, 1898, p. 7, as Early Spring.
New York Times 1898–III
"American Painters Display." New York Times, March 30, 1898, p. 6, as Early Spring.
New-York Commercial Advertiser 1898–III
"The Art World: Ten American Painters at the Durand-Ruel Gallery." New-York Commercial Advertiser, March 30, 1898, p. 7, as Early Spring.
Columbus Journal 1901
"Twachtman’s Painting—To Be Exhibited at Mr. Fauley’s Studio Next Week." Columbus Journal (Ohio), January 27, 1901, as Spring.
Chicago Times Herald 1901–I
"Exhibitions of the Week." Chicago Times Herald, January 12, 1901, part 4, p. 7, as Spring.
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. 495 (catalogue G, no. 586), as Early Spring. (Hale concordance).
Time 1966
"Painting: The Quiet American." Time 88 (October 14, 1966), p. 91 ill. in color, as Spring.
Christie's, New York 1982
American Paintings of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Auction catalogue, December 3, 1982. New York: Christie's, 1982, lot 158 ill. in b/w, as Spring.
Peters 2006–III
Peters, Lisa N. "Twachtman and the Equipoise of Impressionism and Tonalism." In John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter", by Lisa N Peters. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Spanierman), p. 68, as Spring.
Peters 2006–IV
Peters, Lisa N. "Catalogue." In John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter", by Lisa N. Peters. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Spanierman), pp. 170–71 ill. in color, as Spring.
Sotheby's New York 2019
American Art. Auction catalogue, March 6, 2019. New York: Sotheby's, 2019, lot 120 ill. in color, as Spring.
Commentary

Twachtman exhibited this painting in the first exhibition of the Ten American Painters as Early Spring. He also included it, as Spring, in his 1901 exhibitions in Chicago, New York, and Cincinnati.

In the work, Twachtman united a few features of his Greenwich life that were meaningful to him, including Horseneck Brook, winding through the undulating countryside, one of the willow trees he planted on its banks to enhance the setting aesthetically, and one of his children enjoying the outdoor life in a rowboat. The child in the boat, a blond-haired girl, seems to let the boat move of its own accord. This aspect of the work relates it to images Twachtman created of a child alone in a sailboat as it enters into a zone of mist that obscures the line between water and sky, such as Sailing in the Mist (OP.976). In this painting, he drew on Voyage of Life imagery, in which an individual’s passage from birth to death is represented as a lone figure in a boat that is subject to a waterway’s movement and currents. Thus, he could have intended a symbolic remembrance of his daughter Elsie, who died at age nine in 1895. 

The Brooklyn artist George F. Of (1876–1954) purchased this painting from Twachtman’s 1901 Cincinnati exhibition, possibly having seen it in New York. On May 14 of that year, Twachtman sent a letter to Joseph Gest (1859–1935), assistant director of the Cincinnati Art Museum, stating: “Dear Mr. Gest, will you please send picture called Spring to Geo. T. Off, 66 East 8th Street, New York City? It is a picture 25 x 30 upright and something like this. There is a small boat with a child in it off in the middle ground. . . . Before sending the picture take all prices off the back and mark in good sized figure $500” (fig. 1)[1]

Gest replied on May 20 that he had sent the work per Twachtman’s request.[2] Of would later become a noted collector of modernist works by American and European artists and would create his own Fauvist-inspired landscapes that were admired by such discerning critics as Walter Pach, Willard Huntington-Wright, and Charles Caffin as well as by the influential photographer and art dealer Alfred Stieglitz.

[1]  John H. Twachtman to Joseph H. Gest, May 14, 1901. 

[2] Joseph H. Gest to John H. Twachtman, May 20, 1901.

Selected Literature

From New York Commercial Advertiser 1898–III

In an “Early Spring” there is a queer anatomical construction of nature, for a boat on a stream seems to be running uphill, while the composition is uninteresting to a degree. 

From New York Times 1898–III

Of Twachtman’s examples the best are “New Bridge” [OP.981], “Early Spring,” and “On the Terrace” [OP.963]. The two former canvases have the artist’s characteristic delicate and delicious color scheme, and the last has an atmosphere and sentiment which almost recalls Breton.  It is a serious and able work.

From Van Dyke 1898

Mr. Twachtman’s landscapes hanging on the upper row, particularly the “Early Spring” (No. 36), are perhaps more broadly treated than the terrace picture, but they have the same charm of light, form, and color; and this without distorting or giving a false impression of nature.