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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P.809
Coal Dock
ca. 1889
Pastel sandpaper board
13 11/16 x 20 3/8 in. (34.8 x 51.8 cm) (sheet)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman–
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by Frank J. Hevrdejs, Jim Crane, and Gary Petersen in honor of Bob McNair at "One Great Night in November, 2016" (2016.215)
Exhibitions
1890 Wunderlich probably
H. Wunderlich & Co, New York, Exhibition of Pastels, May 1890, as Coal Dock.
Literature
New York Times 1890 probably
"Painters in Pastel." New York Times, May 5, 1890, p. 4, as Coal Dock.
Hale 1957 probably
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. 525 (catalogue G, no. 931), as Coal Dock. (Hale concordance).
Commentary

This pastel depicts the same scene as in the etching Coal Docks, Bridgeport (E.808), where it is in reverse. Probabaly Twachtman intended the etching as an illustration of the pastel, but in the etching, he created a tighter design through cropping and consolidating forms. The etching was listed as Coal Docks, Bridgeport by Margery Ryerson in 1920 (Ryerson 1920). This title was also used in Baskett 1999. However, the location depicted in both the etching and pastel is more likely to be Newport. Twachtman worked in Bridgeport in the summer of 1888 and in Newport in the summer of 1889.

A work Twachtman showed in the May 1890 exhibition of the Society of Painters in Pastel was titled Coal Dock, and is likely to be this pastel. Although the exhibition was not accompanied by a catalogue, reviews suggest that the twelve works Twachtman exhibited included many images of Newport. A reviewer for the New York Times mentioned Coal Dock, along with Sailboats and Mary Ann as among Twachtman's “delightful marines [that were] touched in with spirit.”[1] The industrial subject is also characteristic of Twachtman's Newport images, such as Waterside Scene (WC.804)and The Docks (P.804), where he portrayed a coal derrick, similar to that featured here, from a closer angle. Nonetheless, the distinctive tall buildings in this pastel have yet to be identified. 

This pastel was stolen from an owner to whom Hirschl & Adler Gallery had consigned it in 1967. It was relocated in 2012 and in that year was returned to the gallery.

[1]New York Times 1890.