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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Additional Images
Yellowstone Park, ca. 1895 (OP.1308). Fig. 1. Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, North Rim, North of Lookout Point, June 2022
Fig. 1. Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, North Rim, North of Lookout Point, June 2022
Image: Lisa N. Peters
Related Work
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Keywords
OP.1308
Yellowstone Park
ca. 1895
Oil on canvas laid down on board
30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman–
Private collection
Image: Roz Akin
Exhibitions
1912 Albright Art Gallery
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, Seventh Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists, May 21–September 2, 1912, no. 114, as Yellowstone Park, lent by Mrs. Charles Cary.
1913–I Albright Art Gallery
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, Paintings and Pastels by the Late John H. Twachtman, March 11–April 2, 1913, no. 21, as Yellowstone Park, lent by Mrs. Charles Cary.
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. 51, as Yellowstone Park. Traveled to: Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, July 13–October 29, 2006.
Literature
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. 515 (catalogue G, no. 769), as Yellowstone Park. (Hale concordance).
Christie's, New York 1989–I
18th-, 19th-, and 20th-Century American Pictures and Sculpture. Auction Catalogue, May 25, 1989. New York: Christie's, 1989, lot 236 ill. in color, as Yellowstone Park.
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, pp.372–73; vol. 2, p. 914 ill. in b/w (fig. 400), as Yellowstone Park.
Sotheby's New York 1998
American Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture. Auction catalogue, December 3, 1998. New York: Sotheby's, 1998, lot 47 ill. in color, as Yellowstone Park.
Sotheby's New York 2001–II
Auction catalogue, November 28, 2001. New York: Sotheby's, 2001, lot 76 ill. in color, as Yellowstone Park.
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. 180–81 ill. in color, as Yellowstone Park.
Doyle 2012
European, American, Modern, and Contemporary Art. Auction catalogue, November 13, 2012. New York: Doyle, 2012, lot 406 ill. in color, as Yellowstone Park.
Peters 2024
Peters, Lisa N. "John Twachtman: An American Impressionist's Yellowstone." Montana: The Magazine of Western History 74 (Autumn 2024), pp. 13 ill. in color, 19, as Yellowstone Park.
Commentary

In his paintings of Niagara Falls, Twachtman often created two views of the same scene, conveying the way that the results were artistically distinct. He took the same approach in two images of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone along the North Rim (north of Lookout Point) (fig. 1).This painting and a work also titled Yellowstone Park (OP.1307). In both, he chose a high vantage point, looking across the canyon’s sandstone cliffs. Here his view was at a time of day when overhead sunlight brought out the yellows of the yellow-orange stone in the canyon, while more distant lavender walls were bathed in a thin mist. He expressed the way that the colors he experienced in Yellowstone were a source of amazement to him in a letter to William A. Wadsworth, who sponsored his trip. He stated that visiting the park was “like the outing of a city boy to the country for the first time.” “I was too long in one place.”[1]

This painting was first owned by Dr. and Mrs. Charles Cary, of Buffalo, New York, with whom Twachtman stayed when he was painting views of Niagara Falls. The Carys introduced him to Wadsworth. In 1913 Mrs. Cary (Evelyn) lent this painting, along with Niagara Gorge (OP.1209), to the exhibition of Twachtman’s works at the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. . The work was next owned by Anson Conger Goodyear (1877–1964), a Buffalo-born industrialist, who served as president of the Museum of Modern Art from 1929 to 1939. In 1926 Goodyear made the first of many donations of art from his collection to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, but this painting seems to have remained in his possession until his death.

[1] John H. Twachtman to William A. Wadsworth, September 22, 1895.