Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, New York, Paintings in Oil and Pastel by J. Alden Weir and J. H. Twachtman, February 1–7, 1889, no. 20, as Elsie, pastel, 19 x 12.

1911 Folsom Galleries probably

Folsom Galleries, New York, Second Annual Exhibition of the Pastellists, December 9–13, 1911, no. 65, as Elsie.

1913 New York School of Applied Design for Women

New York School of Applied Design for Women, Fifty Paintings by the Late John H. Twachtman, January 15–February 15, 1913, no. 44, as Elsie, lent by Mrs. J. H. Twachtman.

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. 34, as Elsie, lent by Mrs. J. H. Twachtman.

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. 97, as Elsie, lent by Mr. and Mrs. Godfrey Twachtman, Independence, Missouri.

Literature

Magazine of Art 1889

"Monthly Record of American Art." Magazine of Art 12 (June 1889), p. xxvi.

Studio 1889 probably

"Paintings and Pastels by J. H. Twachtman and J. Alden Weir." Studio 4 (February 1889), p. 45, as Elsie.

New York Times 1889–II probably

"A Spirited Picture Sale." New York Times, February 8, 1889, p. 5, as Elsie.

Sun 1889–II probably

"Weir and Twachtman Pictures." Sun (New York), February 8, 1889, p. 3, as Elsie.

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, pp. 586–87 (catalogue A, no. 934b), as Elsie. (Hale concordance).

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. 264; vol. 2, p. 804 ill. in b/w (fig. 280), as Elsie.

Commentary

Included in the sale of the work of Twachtman and Julian Alden Weir, held February 7, 1889 at the Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, this pastel depicts Twachtman's third child, his daughter Elsie (born November 2, 1886) at about age 2 1/2. Elsie seems to have knowingly posed for her father, gazing sidelong with a somber expression. Referencing the work, a critic for the Studio stated that while both Weir and Twachtman pushed “vagueness to the very bounds of what is allowable,” Twachtman was "never vague: he merely stops, now and again, at a point this side of conventional completeness. Thus, in his pastel of a child, 'Elsie'—all that was essential was there: it rested with the artist whether he should carry it further nor not. And it is doubtful, if we were to live with this picture, whether we should not in time come to think any addition an impertinence."

The pastel was also singled out by a reviewer for the Magazine of Art, who stated: "His one figure subject presents a child in a pinafore handled in a broad, simple way."

The pastel sold from the exhibition for $195, making it not only the most expensive pastel in the show but among the most expensive works overall. (Only four paintings sold for over $200.) However, the pastel seems to have been returned to the artist; it was inherited by his son Godfrey, who sold it at some point before 1975.

Twachtman had a special bond with Elsie and was inconsolable at her death from scarlet fever at age nine in 1895.

Citation: Lisa N. Peters. John Henry Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné. Greenwich, Conn.: Greenwich Historical Society, 2021 (jhtwachtman.org).
This page: https://www.jhtwachtman.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=294 accessed on May 13, 2025.

Record last updated February 22, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.