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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.918
Summer
Late 1890s
Oil on canvas
30 x 52 1/16 in. (76.2 x 132.2 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman–
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
Image: Edward Owen
Provenance
Martha Twachtman, the artist's wife, Greenwich, Connecticut;
to (Macbeth, by 1919);
to present collection, 1919.
Exhibitions
1905 Knoedler
M. Knoedler & Co, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Pictures by John H. Twachtman, January 2–11, 1905, no. 18, as Summer.
1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial
Portland, Oregon, Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, June 1–October 14, 1905, no. 111, as Summer, lent by Silas S. Dustin, New York.
1906 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 101st Annual Exhibition, January 22–March 3, 1906, no. 239, as Summer.
1907–I Lotos Club
Lotos Club, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by the Late John H. Twachtman, January 5–31, 1907, no. 35, as Summer.
1907 Carnegie Institute
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Eleventh Annual Carnegie Institute International Exhibition, April 11–June 13, 1907, no. 460, as Summer.
1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
Seattle, Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, June 1–October 16, 1909, no. 158, as Summer, lent by Silas S. Dustin, New York.
1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition probably
Department of Fine Arts, San Francisco, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, February 20–December 4, 1915, no. 4071, as Summer.
1918 Detroit Institute of Arts probably
Detroit Institute of Arts, Fourth Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists, April 9–30, 1918, no. 117, as Summer.
1919 Macbeth
Macbeth Gallery, New York, Paintings by John H. Twachtman, January 1919, no. 9, p. 8 ill. in b/w, 13, as Summer.
1920 Corcoran Gallery of Art
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Selected Paintings from the Collections of Mrs. D.C. Phillips and Mr. Duncan Phillips of Washington, March 3–31, 1920, no. 1, as Summer.
1921 Phillips
Phillips Memorial Art Gallery, Washington, D.C., Selected Paintings from the Phillips Memorial Art Gallery, February 1921, no. 1, as Summer.
1921 Century Club
Century Club, New York, Selected Paintings from the Phillips Memorial Art Gallery, November 20–December 20, 1921, no. 1, as Summer.
1928 Phillips Memorial Gallery
Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington, D.C., Tri-Unit Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, February–May 1928, p. 53, as Summer.
1930 Phillips Memorial Gallery
Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington, D.C., First Exhibition: Season 1930-31, October 5, 1930–January 25, 1931, no. 24, as Summer.
1936 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, The Main Currents in the Development of American Painting, January 16–March 1, 1936, no. 81, as Summer.
1937 Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum, New York, Leaders of American Impressionism: Mary Cassatt, Childe Hassam, John H. Twachtman, and J. Alden Weir, October 17–November 28, 1937, no. 69, as Summer, lent by the Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington, D.C
1940 Carnegie Institute
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Survey of American Painting, October 24–December 15, 1940, no. 163, as Summer.
1941 Knoedler
Knoedler Galleries, New York, Royal Cortissoz and his Fifty Years of Criticism in the "New York Herald Tribune", December 1–20, 1941, no. 32, as Summer.
1951 Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The 75th Anniversary Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by 75 Artists Associated with the Art Students League of New York, March 16–April 29, 1951, no. 10, p. xix, ill. in b/w (plate 10), as Summer.
1957 Carnegie Institute
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, American Classics of the Nineteenth Century, October 18–December 1, 1957, no. 102, as Summer. Traveled to: Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, January 5–26, 1958; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, February 14–March 16, 1958; Baltimore Museum of Art, April 8–May 4, 1958; Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire, May 22–June 25, 1958.
1973 National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., American Impressionist Painting, July 1–August 26, 1973, no. 64, as Summer. Traveled to: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 18–November 2, 1973; Cincinnati Art Museum, December 15, 1973–January 31, 1974; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, March 8–April 29, 1974.
1979 Phillips Collection and Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service
Phillips Collection and Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service, Washington, D.C., The Phillips Collection in the Making: 1920–1930, May 5–June 10, 1979, no. 35, pp. 66 ill. in color, 95, as Summer. Traveled to: Brook Memorial Art Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee, May 5–June 10, 1979; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, July 14–August 22, 1979; Dayton Art Institute, Ohio, September 15–October 28, 1979; Art Center, Coral Gables, Florida, November 17–December 30, 1979; Philbrook Art Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma, January 19–March 1980; Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, May 24–July 6, 1980.
1989–II National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., District of Columbia, John Twachtman: Connecticut Landscapes, October 15, 1989–January 28, 1990. (Exhibition catalogue: Chotner 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Pyne 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Peters 1989–I), no. 16, p. 104 ill. in color, as Summer. Traveled to: Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, March 18–May 20, 1990.
1999 High Museum of Art
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist, February 26–May 21, 2000. (Peters 1999–I), no. 46, as Summer. Traveled to: Cincinnati Art Museum, June 6–September 5, 1999; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, October 16, 1999–January 2, 2000.
2002 Fondation de l'Hermitage
Fondation de l'Hermitage, Lausanne, Switzerland, L'Impressionnisme Américain, 1880–1915, 2002, no. 53, as Summer.
Literature
Cortissoz 1905
Cortissoz, Royal. "Art Exhibitions: American Landscapes by the Late John H. Twachtman." New-York Tribune, January 4, 1905, p. 6, as Summer.
New York Herald 1905
"Twachtman's Paintings Seen." New York Herald, January 1, 1905, section 1, p. 14, as Summer.
New York Post 1905
"A Twachtman Memorial." New York Post, January 4, 1905, p. 7, as Summer.
Britton 1919
Britton, James. "Exhibition Now On: Twachtmans at Macbeth's." American Art News 17 (January 11, 1919), p. 2, as Summer.
Watson 1920
Watson, Forbes. "John H. Twachtman: A Painter Pure and Simple." Arts and Decoration 12 (April 1920), p. 395 ill. in b/w, as Summer.
Cortissoz 1923
Cortissoz, Royal. American Artists. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1923, p. 137, as Summer.
Price 1924
Price, F. Newlin. "Phillips Memorial Gallery." International Studio 80 (October 1924), p. 17 ill. in b/w, as Summer.
Tucker 1931
Tucker, Allen. John H. Twachtman. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1931, pp. 9, 40–41 ill. in b/w, as Summer.
Phillips Collection 1952
The Phillips Collection: A Museum of Modern Art and Its Sources. Washington, D.C.: Phillips Collection, 1952, p. 102–103 ill. in b/w (plate 76), as Summer.
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. 282, 284 ill. in b/w; vol. 2, p. 571–72 (catalogue A, no. 605a), as Summer. (Hale concordance).
Hoopes 1972
Hoopes, Donelson F. The American Impressionists. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1972, plate 37 ill. in color, as Summer.
Eldredge 1974
Eldredge, Charles. "Connecticut Impressionists: The Spirit of Place." Art in America 62 (September–October 1974), p. 86 ill. in b/w, as Summer.
Boyle 1979
Boyle, Richard. John Twachtman. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1979, pp. 64–65 ill. in color, as Summer.
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, 38, as Summer.
May 1990
May, Stephen. "Twachtman at the Wadsworth Atheneum." Art Times (March 1990), p. 8 ill. in b/w, 9.
May 1991
May, Stephen. "Visual Poetry: The Landscapes of John Henry Twachtman." Carnegie Magazine 60 (January–February 1991), pp. 36 ill. in color, 38, as Summer.
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. 344, 385; vol. 2, p. 932 ill. in b/w (fig. 418), as Summer.
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. xxvii, 223, 452 ill. in b/w (8.6), as Summer.
Larkin 1998
Larkin, Susan G. "On Home Ground: John Twachtman and the Familiar Landscape." American Art Journal 29 (1998), pp. 62 ill. in b/w, 64, as Summer.
Passantino 1999
Passantino, Erika D. The Eye of Duncan Phillips: A Collection in the Making. Washington, D.C.: Phillips Collection in association with Yale University, 1999, pp. 157, 159 ill. in b/w, as Summer.
Peters 1999–I
Peters, Lisa N. John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist. Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 1999. Exhibition catalogue (1999 High Museum of Art), pp. 135, 138 ill. in color, 143, as Summer.
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. 185 ill. in b/w, 186, as Summer.
Rosenbaum 2006
Rosenbaum, Julia B. Visions of Belonging: New England Art and the Making of American Identity. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University, 2006, p. 103, as Summer.
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. 70–71 ill. in color (fig. 57), as Summer.
Commentary

In Summer, Twachtman portrayed a view looking southeast toward the back of his Greenwich home, but his vantage point was farther north than in his other images of this subject, in which he stood on the hill just opposite the dwelling. The distance is also revealed in the way that Round Hill Road is more level here than in Twachtman's House (OP.903) and From the Upper Terrace (OP.910), where it forms a sharper diagonal. This is, in fact, the only image of the back of his home that Twachtman definitively created after his final renovation of 1894–95, although House in Snow (OP.917) may have been rendered at this time, due to the suggestion of the presence of two dormers in the north facade, one hidden by a tree. 

In Summer, the dormer at the right represents Twachtman’s new western addition to his house, which he built over the rocky foundation of the land so its ground floor was on the second floor of the home. On the south facade, this phase of remodeling resulted in a new formal entryway. On the north facade, the new dormer was part of a renovated master-bedroom suite. In the painting, Twachtman recorded the new relationships that occurred between his home and the land, such as how a tree that was previously at the west side of the house now stood between its dormers, while trees behind the house formed a more central halolike arc over the dwelling than previously. Using a format almost twice as long in width as in height, Twachtman brought out the new elongation of his home, which now adhered more than in the past to the lay of the land. At the left, the line of the roof at its eastern edge is continued in the hill on the opposite side of the road. At the right, the building seems embraced by the swollen shape of the hillside.

Twachtman covered the canvas with a rough ground of dry, thick pigment and then painted over it with layers of equally dry paint. The result is in an encrusted surface whose physical density suggests hardness and stability. This is matched by the work's firmly defined areas of sunlight and shadow that both conjure a long summer afternoon and a feeling of permanence. 

There is no indication that this painting was shown during Twachtman’s lifetime. Its first-known exhibition was in 1905 when it was included in a memorial show of the artist’s work at Knoedler Galleries, New York. Subsequently, it was exhibited frequently, and in 1919, it was acquired by Duncan Phillips as part of a group of four paintings by Twachtman that Phillips collected to represent each of the seasons.

Selected Literature

From Tucker 1931

He expressed his comprehension of the world, his ideas of man and nature through a unified design. In the picture of his house at Greenwich, now in the Phillips Collection, how well he conveys the running and playing together of the shadows across the breast of the verdant hillside [p. 9].

From Boyle 1979

Whereas the Niagara and Yellowstone series were neither specific nor general enough, in Summer he fully realizes a true sense of light, air, and space; his touch is sure and quick. The house is one with the landscape; all the elements are subtly fused yet hold their own in the picture with an unerring placement, a sure sense of scale, and an equal mastery of color and tone [p. 64].

From Peters 1995

Another change occurred in Twachtman’s art in the late 1890s that was not in the realm of style, but in his subject matter and attitude. A number of landscapes from this time reveal more evidence of cultivation and settlement than had been present in his images previously. These works perhaps reflect a phase in Twachtman’s life when, after years in Greenwich and after extensive modification of his home and land, he had come to feel comfortably settled into a place that he felt to be his own. Summer exemplifies this new orientation (fig. 418). Showing the house presiding over the open sun-filled meadow, and firmly ensconced in the landscape, the painting conveys a mood of contentment. The lines of the hillside above the house descend to join the line of its roof, while the landscape below sweeps up to embrace the structure.  A tree behind the house roots it in its space. Covering the canvas with a thick, densely woven layer of paint, Twachtman conveys a sense of the heavy heat and dry ground in summer. Patches of light and shadow are strongly contoured, revealing a light that is defining rather than transitory.

From Larkin 2001

Summer also shows segments of dry-stone walling. Whether relics of the land’s agricultural past or replicas built by Twachtman, they lie on the land as naturally as the rock outcroppings in the foreground. Painted after Twachtman had enlarged the house, Summer records his progress in integrating it with the landscape. The format, unusual for the artist, is a long horizontal that splits into two near-squares along the columnar central tree. The left half includes a neighbor’s pasture, edged by a cow path meandering along Round Hill Road; the right half shows Twachtman’s place. Large trees shade the house front and back, with smaller ones providing privacy along the road. The house hugs the hillside, its roofline a continuation of the land’s contours, its dormered windows like eyes on the earth. The painting offers a broader vista and greater expanse of sky than is usual in Twachtman’s Greenwich paintings. In Summer, he deviated from the usual format in order to relate his house to the earth, trees, and sky.