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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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Keywords
OP.907
Snowbound
Alternate titles: Snow Bound; Snow-Bound
ca. 1892–93
Oil on canvas
22 x 30 in. (55.9 x 76.2 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman–
Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey, Museum purchase; Lang Acquisition Fund (1951.33)
Image: Peter Jacobs
Provenance
(Ferargil Gallery, New York);
to (Macbeth, 1925);
to Judge Alexander Simpson Jr., Philadelphia, October 1925;
to (Macbeth);
to present collection, 1951.
Exhibitions
1893 American Art Galleries probably
American Art Galleries, New York, Paintings, Pastels, and Etchings by J. Alden Weir, J. H. Twachtman, Claude Monet, and Paul Albert Besnard, by May 4–mid-November 1893, no. 24, as Snowbound.
1893 St. Botolph Club probably
St. Botolph Club, Boston, Exhibition of Oil Paintings by Messrs. Weir and Twachtman, November 27–December 9, 1893, no. 10, as Snowbound.
1895 Art Club of Philadelphia probably
Art Club of Philadelphia, Seventh Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture, November 18–December 16, 1895, no. 113, as Snowbound.
1895 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts probably
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Sixty-Fifth Annual Exhibition, December 23, 1895–January 22, 1896, no. 332, as Snow-Bound.
1901 Art Institute of Chicago probably
Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of the Works of John H. Twachtman, January 8–27, 1901, no. 10, as Snowbound.
1901–I Durand-Ruel
Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, Paintings and Pastels by John H. Twachtman, March 4–16, 1901, as Snow Bound.
1901–I Cincinnati Art Museum probably
Cincinnati Art Museum, Exhibition of Sixty Paintings by Mr. John H. Twachtman, Formerly Resident in Cincinnati, April 12–May 16, 1901, no. 39, as Snow Bound.
1952 Century Association
Century Association, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by Abbott Thayer and John H. Twachtman, March 5–May 4, 1952, as Snow Bound.
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. 48, as Snowbound, lent by the Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey.
2015 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, The Artist's Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, February 13–May 24, 2015, no. 60, p. 192 ill. in color, as Snowbound. Traveled to: Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia, June 16–September 6, 2015; Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, October 1, 2015–January 3, 2016; The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California, January 23–May 9, 2016; Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut, June 3–September 18, 2016.
2022 Greenwich Historical Society
Greenwich Historical Society, Cos Cob, Connecticut, Life and Art: The Greenwich Paintings of John Henry Twachtman, October 19, 2022–January 22, 2023. (Peters 2021–II), no. 3, as Snowbound.
Literature
New York Times 1901–I
"A Trio of Painters: Pictures by Three Americans in Three Fifth Avenue Galleries." New York Times, March 7, 1901, p. 7, as Snowbound.
New-York Tribune 1901–II
"Art Exhibitions: Paintings by Mr. Twachtman." New-York Tribune, March 6, 1901, p. 6, as Snowbound.
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. 160, 282, 293, 269 ill. in b/w; vol. 2, p. 570 (catalogue A, no. 554), as Snowbound. (Hale concordance).
Montclair Art Museum 1977
Montclair Art Museum. Painting Collection of the Montclair Art Museum. Montclair, N.J.: Montclair Art Museum, 1977, p. 133 ill. in b/w, as Snowbound.
Beebe et al. 1984
Beebe, Marjorie, et al. American Reflections: Paintings 1830-1940: From the Collections of Pomona College and Scripps College, Claremont, California. Claremont, Calif.: Trustees of Pomona and Scripps College, 1984, p. 54 ill. in b/w, as Snowbound.
Kushner et al. 1989
Kushner, Marilyn, et al. Three Hundred Years of American Painting. New York: Hudson Hills in association with the Montclair Art Museum, 1989, pp. 36, 39, 86, 89 ill. in color, as Snowbound.
Peters 1989–I
Peters, Lisa N. "Twachtman's Greenwich Paintings: Context and Chronology." In John Twachtman: Connecticut Landscapes, by Deborah Chotner, Lisa N. Peters, and Kathleen A. Pyne. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1989. Exhibition catalogue (1989–II National Gallery of Art), pp. 22–23 ill. in b/w, 29, as Snowbound.
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. 346, 360; vol. 2, p. 878 ill. in b/w (fig. 364), as Snowbound.
Larkin 1996
Larkin, Susan G. "'A Regular Rendezvous for Impressionists:' The Cos Cob Art Colony 1882–1920." Ph.D. dissertation, 1996. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microforms, 1996, pp. xi, 28, 60n9, 221–22, 241n23, 301 ill. in b/w (2.3), as Snowbound.
Larkin 2001–I
Larkin, Susan G. The Cos Cob Art Colony: Impressionists on the Connecticut Shore. New York: National Academy of Design in association with Yale University, 2001. Exhibition catalogue (2001 National Academy of Design), pp. 180–81 ill. in b/w, 183, as Snowbound.
Gerdts 2003–I
Gerdts, William H. The Golden Age of American Impressionism. New York: Watson-Guptill, 2003, pp. 12, 24, 67–68 ill. in color, as Snowbound.
Peters 2021–II
Peters, Lisa N. Life and Art: The Greenwich Paintings of John Henry Twachtman. Cos Cob, Conn.: Greenwich Historical Society, 2021. Exhibition catalogue (2022 Greenwich Historical Society), pp. 33–34 ill. in color (fig. 22), 36, 38–39, 43, 45, 104 ill. in color; back cover (detail), as Snowbound.
Peters 2021–III
Peters, Lisa N. "The Greenwich Paintings of John Henry Twachtman." American Art Review 33 (Fall 2021), pp. 73 ill. in color, 76, as Snowbound.
Johnson 2022
Johnson, Kate Eagen. "Life and Art: The Greenwich Paintings of John Henry Twachtman." Antiques and the Arts Weekly (November 1, 2022), ill. in color, as Snowbound.
Nord 2023
Nord, Kristin. "Life and Art: The Greenwich Paintings of John Henry Twachtman." Art New England (January–February 2023), p. 55 ill. in color, as Snowbound.
Commentary

In Snowbound, Twachtman portrayed the back (north facade) of his Greenwich home on a day when the sky was blue but thick with the clouds of an impending snowfall, while the ground remained covered wtih an older snow. The painting conveys the feeling of being homebound in a locked-down world, summoning John Greenleaf Whittier’s 1866 poem “Snow-bound." The poem describes how a winter storm led the inhabitants of an "old New England home" to remain indoors and exchange stories, providing a sense of closeness that would not have occurred otherwise.

In the image, Twachtman accentuated the house as a place of shelter from the elements. Its proportions are less rectangular than those of the canvas, setting it more apart from the landscape than in works such as the similar Last Touch of Sun (OP.908), while its red chimneys at either end bracket the cottage-like structure. 

The painting was rendered about 1892–93, after Twachtman had lowered the eaves and created a new entryway with a small gable over it that led into a foyer (the saddle room), off of the dining room.

Snowbound was a title Twachtman gave to a painting of about 1888, depicting ships in ice (OP.806). When he used the title again, it was for a view (or views) of his Greenwich home, including this painting, which was probably the work with this title included in the exhibition held in spring 1893 that featured work by Twachtman, Julian Alden Weir, Claude Monet, and Paul-Albert Besnard. When Twachtman and Weir sent ten paintings from the show to the exhibition of their work, held that fall at the St. Botolph Club in Boston, Snowbound was among them.  A reviewer of the New York exhibition for the Critic compared Twachtman’s snow scenes with those of Monet: “Twachtman . . . is less exacting, and his snow must, hardly less than Monet’s, be a revelation to these artists who appear to think that all that is necessary in painting a white object is plenty of white paint.”[1]

The painting also seems to have been included in the artist’s three 1901 solo exhibitions (at the Art Institute of Chicago; Durand-Ruel Gallery, New York; and the Cincinnati Art Museum). That it was this Snowbound (and not another work with the same title OP.909) is indicated in a review in the New York Times of the Durand-Ruel show that mentions the prominent chimney on the house: “in ‘Snowbound,’ where the brick in the chimneystack of the cottage is the only strong bit of color in the landscape, the snow is a trifle too feathery, too cottony." Next to the listing for Snowbound in the Cincinnati Art Museum catalogue, a price of $400 was penned in, making the work among the higher priced paintings on view.

By 1925, this painting was in the inventory of Ferargil Gallery. In that year, it was sold by Macbeth Gallery to the Philadelphia Judge Alexander Simpson, Jr. (1855–1935), one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. At some point, it returned to Macbeth, where it was purchased by the Montclair Art Museum in 1951. 

[1] Critic 1893–II.