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In Chicago at the time of his January of 1901 exhibition at the Art Institute, Twachtman indicated to a reporter for the Chicago American that this painting was among his favorites, having been painted by himself and his son, J. Alden Twachtman (see Selected literature).
In the scene, he focused on a chicken coop probably erected in the late 1890s, along the stone wall that he constructed behind his home. Diverging from his usual distant perspectives, he captured an informal moment of everyday life that evoked the mother and child theme, conveying his wife’s role as both protective and enabling of her children’s independence. He conveyed this by depicting her in a brown dress silhouetted against the white shed of the chicken coop, under a halolike vine trellis, while allowing her daughter, Violet to care for the chickens by herself. Doves flutter down and gently alight, as if conferring holiness on the scene.
Twachtman included Barnyard in three 1901 solo exhibitions (Chicago, New York, and Cincinnati). The work was sold from his estate sale in 1903 as Feeding the Chickens. Its buyer was George D. Pratt (1868–1935), a well-known wealthy railroad magnate, philanthropist, and conservationist. The painting was included in the sale of Pratt’s estate at Parke-Bernet in 1942.
Mr. Twachtman, in speaking of the various works he has created, and which were shown said: “The scenes on my farm at Greenwich, Conn., are perhaps my favorites, although an artist should not judge his own works—one of these painted by my son, J. Alden Twachtman, and myself—the one representing a little child feeding chickens—is an especial favorite of mine. Another is the Yellowstone Falls, which I might call the best of all my exhibits.”
The picture of the child feeding chickens is that of the artist's little girl, and as his son, a winner of the Yale Winchester prize, collaborated with him in this, there is a sentiment which makes it dear to the artist.
From Parke-Bernet 1942
Sunlit scene with a small child in a white frock feeding chickens and white pigeons surrounding her, the figure of a woman appearing before a white shed in the background; beyond them green foliage of trees on a sunlight hillside.
From Larkin 1996
The differences between the suburban and rural styles of poultry-keeping are revealed in a comparison of Twachtman’s Barnyard and fellow art-colonist David B. Walkley’s Feeding the Chickens (fig. 8.10) [ca. 1900, oil on canvas, 17 x 28 inches, private collection]. Most of Twachtman’s hens are Rhode Island Reds, which were popular for both their plentiful brown eggs and plump flesh, but a few Black Minorcas provide visual contrast. The rooster to the child’s left appears to be a Buff Japanese, a breed prized for its showy plumage. The white doves fluttering through the air and the fantail pigeons strutting on the ground were also ornamental. Though they were occasionally used for meat, the birds were valued primarily for their beauty and the soothing murmur of their soft cooing. In Walkley’s painting, on the other hand, all of the fowl are the same breed, selected for practical considerations far removed from the aesthetic appeal of Twachtman’s ornamental varieties. They range free, scratching for insects all over the working farm, while Twachtman’s are penned to prevent them from harming the ornamental plantings. Twachtman’s hen house is neatly white-washed; Walkley’s barn is sided with unpainted boards. Twachtman’s suburban image is distinguished from Walkley’s rural one largely by its concern with ornament. . . . [pp. 225–26]
Twachtman’s painting differs from his colleagues’ in the treatment of mother and child. In Walkley’s oil, the two share the task of feeding the chickens. In Twachtman’s, the mother stays in the background, allowing the child to experience its emerging autonomy. The little girl, scarcely taller than the roosters, learns to assume responsibility for living creatures; she nurtures the poultry as her mother nurtures her. This scenario is not realistic, as anyone who has fed a flock of hungry chickens can attest—a child so small would almost certainly have endured a few painful pecks. Twachtman’s aim is not to document a routine chore, however, but to use the theme of the poultry yard to celebrate the family.
A sense of sacredness pervades Barnyard. The mother, whose dress links her coloristically to the earth, is framed in the trellised gate like a saint in a cathedral niche. The dove hovering over her head inevitably suggests the Holy Spirit to anyone familiar with European art, as was Twachtman. Light, the symbol of grace in religious paintings, touches the woman, the hen house, and the wings of the doves, with the strongest beam spotlight in the child, like the infant in Nativity scenes. The shed and poultry recall the stable and animals traditionally associated with Christ’s birth. Twachtman’s use of religious paintings is not overt, like that of his contemporary George de Forest Brush. Instead, perhaps unconsciously, he drew on a body of conventions in European art to give a rustic image of family life an aura of benediction [pp. 227–28].
- Museum website (collections.flogris.org)