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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
Venice, ca. 1878 (OP.208). Fig. 1. Punta della Dogana of Punta della Dogana customs building with the San Giorgio Maggiore church in the background in Venice, 2013.
Fig. 1. Punta della Dogana of Punta della Dogana customs building with the San Giorgio Maggiore church in the background in Venice, 2013.
Image: Wolfgang Moroder
Venice, ca. 1878 (OP.208). Fig. 2. Joseph Mallord William Turner, Venice: The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore, 1834, oil on canvas, 36 x 48 1/16 in., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Widener Collection (1942.9.85).
Fig. 2. Joseph Mallord William Turner, Venice: The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore, 1834, oil on canvas, 36 x 48 1/16 in., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Widener Collection (1942.9.85).
Related Work
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Keywords
OP.208
Venice
ca. 1878
Oil on canvas
16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman
Private collection, Switzerland, courtesy of Downing Yudain LLC, Stamford, Connecticut
Image: Roz Akin
Provenance
(Macbeth, by 1913–ca. 1920);
Adolph Lewisohn, New York, by 1926;
to (Parke-Bernet, New York, Lewisohn sale, May 16–17, 1939, lot 248);
to T. Finger or T. Fiager;
Lovenick;
to (Babcock Galleries, by 1942);
Orr Family, 1960;
to present collection, 2004.
Exhibitions
1920 Macbeth
Macbeth Gallery, New York, Fourth Exhibition of Intimate Paintings, November 30–December 31, 1920, no. 88, as Venice.
1942–I Babcock
Babcock Galleries, New York, Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels by John H. Twachtman, February 9–28, 1942, no. 2, as Venice.
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. 2, as Venice, shown only in New York. Traveled to: Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, July 13–October 29, 2006.
Literature
Clark 1921
Clark, Eliot. "The Art of John Twachtman." International Studio 72 (January 1921), p. lxxix ill. in b/w, as Venice.
Clark 1924
Clark, Eliot. John Twachtman. New York: privately printed, 1924, p. 32, as Venice.
Watson 1926
Watson, Forbes. "American Collections: No. III—The Adolph Lewisohn Collection." Arts 10 (July 1926), p. 46 ill. in b/w, as Venice.
Parke-Bernet 1939
Works of Art from the Collection of the Late Adolph Lewisohn. Auction catalogue, May 16–17, 1939. New York: Parke-Bernet, 1939, lot 248, as Venice.
Lane 1942
Lane, James W. "Twachtman at His Best." Artnews 41 (March 1–14, 1942), p. 29, as Venice.
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. 181–82 ill. in b/w (fig. 17), 189; vol. 2, p. 502 (catalogue G, no. 650), as Venice. (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, pp. 53–54; vol. 2, p. 597 ill. in b/w (fig. 38), as Venice.
Peters 2006–II
Peters, Lisa N. "Twachtman's Realist Art and the Aesthetic Liberation of Modern Life." In John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter", by Lisa N. Peters. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Spanierman), p. 36, as Venice.
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. 82–83 ill. in color, 104, as Venice.
Commentary

Twachtman chose an illustrious Venetian perspective for this painting, looking southeast from the mouth of the Grand Canal toward the Dogana di Mare (the custom's house, at the southern island of Venice), with the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore on its own island beyond it. Many other artists portrayed Venice from this vantage point. Among them is Joseph Mallord Turner in The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore, 1834 (fig. 1), in which Turner emphasized the city's brilliant light glistening across the water and illuminating the sun-bleached walls of celebrated buildings that recede far into the distance. By contrast, Twachtman limited his palette to grays and browns, while bringing out sunlit effects with gold and red-orange accents on gondolas, sails, the golden ball atop the custom's house, and the campanile of San Giorgio.  He painted the scene with free and distinct brushwork, indicating that he recorded it as he observed it, despite his use of a somber palette. 

At the same time, he considered the scene's motifs in relation to its overall design. As his student Eliot Clark, commented in 1924, most of Twachtman's Venetian scenes "are in the proportion of three by five . . . but the interesting 'Venice' with the Dogana high in the canvas and the distant San Giorgio is more in the proportion of five by six."[1] Twachtman anchored the work with the pilings in the left corner of the foreground, drawing the viewer’s eye on diagonal to the Dogana and from there to San Giorgio, which seems set at a high point in the picture plane rather than in the distance. In his emphasis on surface pattern over depth, he made the work into an original artistic conception instead of one of the postcard-type images of Venice that often featured just this scene. 

Although such images by Twachtman broke from conventions for the portrayal of Venice, they received high praise from New York critics. Among them, Marianna van Rensselaer commented on two Venetian images by Twachtman on view at the National Academy annual in 1879, stating: “Having found fault with Munich for non-performance, I must on the other hand give a word of hearty praise to one of her youngest disciples, Mr. Twachtmann, whose landscape studies are bold, strong, and artistic, full of promise in many ways.” Nonetheless, this may well have been among the works Twachtman would later describe to his student Carolyn Mase as images of "sunny Venice done under the influence of the Munich School."[3]

By 1913 this painting was in the collection of the investment banker, mining magnate, and philanthropist Adolph Lewisohn (1849–1938), who donated a large portion of his collection to the Brooklyn Museum. However, Lewisohn kept this painting for himself, as it was included in his 1939 estate sale.

[1] Clark 1924. 

[2] Van Rensselaer 1879. 

[3] Mase 1921, p. lxxviii.