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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
Canal in Venice, ca. 1885 (P.711). Verso: P.711, Canal in Venice, showing labels.
Verso: P.711, Canal in Venice, showing labels.
Canal in Venice, ca. 1885 (P.711). Fig. 1. Rio de San Vio at Campo San Vio, Venice, 2008.
Fig. 1. Rio de San Vio at Campo San Vio, Venice, 2008.
Keywords
P.711
Canal in Venice
Alternate title: Venice
ca. 1885
Pastel on paper
16 5/8 x 11 3/4 in. (42.2 x 29.8 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman [in cursive] [Inscribed on verso by the artist's son, J. Alden Twachtman: Pastel by my father J. H. Twachtman Venice '84, June 16, 1956]
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Gift of Charles G. Thalhimer in honor of his wife Sibyl's 90th birthday (2012.267)
Image: Travis Fullerton; © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Provenance
Martha Twachtman, the artist's wife, Greenwich, Connecticut;
Albert E. McVitty, Princeton, New Jersey;
to McVitty estate;
(Babcock);
to (Parke-Bernet, New York, McVitty sale, December 15, 1949, lot 32);
to Ned L. Pines;
to Phillip Morrison;
to Mrs. William H. Bender, Bronxville, New York, 1953;
to estate of Mrs. William H. Bender, Bronxville, New York;
to (Sotheby Parke Bernet, April 21, 1977, lot 69);
to Mr. and Mrs. Charles G..Thalhimer, 1977;
gift to present collection, 2012.
Exhibitions
1939 Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute
Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, Presenting the Work of John H. Twachtman, American Painter, November 5–28, 1939, no. 9, as Canal in Venice, lent by Albert E. McVitty, Esq.
1942–I Babcock
Babcock Galleries, New York, Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels by John H. Twachtman, February 9–28, 1942, no. 21, as Venice, pastel.
1942–II Babcock
Babcock Galleries, New York, Exhibition of American Artists, September 14–October 10, 1942, no. 25, as Venice, pastel.
1984 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Venice: The American View, 1860–1920, October 20, 1984–January 20, 1985, no. 86, as Canal in Venice. Traveled to: Cleveland Museum of Art, February 27–April 21, 1985.
Literature
Parke-Bernet 1949
Modern Paintings: Estate of the Late Albert E. McVitty . . . .Auction catalogue, December 15, 1949. New York: Parke-Bernet, 1949, lot 32, as Canal in 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. 2, p. 593 (catalogue A, no. 1041), as Canal in Venice. (Hale concordance).
Sotheby Parke Bernet 1977–I
American 19th- and 20th-Century Paintings, Drawings, Watercolors, and Sculpture. Auction catalogue, April 21, 1977. New York: Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1977, lot 69 ill. in b/w, as Canal in Venice.
Lovell 1984
Lovell, Margaretta M. Venice: The American View, 1860–1920. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1984. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 131–32 ill. in b/w, as Canal in Venice.
Commentary

The site depicted in this pastel, the Rio de San Vio Canal in Venice (fig. 1), was a short walk west from where Twachtman stayed in the city in 1885 with Robert Blum at the Palazzo Contarini degli Scrigni on the Grand Canal in Dorsoduro, near the San Trovaso Canal. The pastel portrays a view in the direction of the Punta della Dogana. The tall building at the left with a central arched doorway is a palazzo built in the sixteenth century that now houses the Palazzo Cini. The bridge in the distance is the Ponte de Mezzo, an arched stone bridge over the canal. The tower in the background is that of the Santo Stefano Church at the northern end of the Campo Santo Stefano. 

Whistler created a similar vertically oriented Venetian pastel, Winter Evening, 1879–80 (Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), which appears to portray the same view. However, there are significant differences in the artists' images. Twachtman used delicate and careful draftsmanship in contrast with Whistler’s quicker, sketchier approach. In a wide-angled scene, Twachtman leads the viewer just above the level of the water along the wall at the right into the scene’s gradually narrowing depths. In the middle distance, he used the arched bridge, where tiny dashes of color indicate the presence of figures, to connect the quays on both sides of the canal, creating both a focal point and continuity in the composition. Whistler’s image is more disjointed. The viewer is suspended in the air between the high walls of buildings, with the canal far below and the arch of the bridge isolated against a jumble of more distant structures.