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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.805
Woodland Stream
Alternate title: In the Woods
ca. 1882–89
Oil on panel
17 3/4 x 13 13/16 in. (45.1 x 35.2 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman
Location unknown
Provenance
Probably (Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, New York, Twachtman–Weir sale, February 7, 1889, lot 80, as In the Woods, 18 x 14 in.);
(Milch);
(Christie's, New York, March 23, 1984, lot 286A).
Exhibitions
1889–I Fifth Avenue Art Galleries probably
Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, New York, Paintings in Oil and Pastel by J. Alden Weir and J. H. Twachtman, February 1–7, 1889, no. 80, as In the Woods, 18 x 14 in.
Literature
New York Times 1889–I probably
"The Weir–Twachtman Paintings." New York Times, February 3, 1889, p. 13, as In the Woods.
New-York Tribune 1889–II probably
"Pictures by Messrs. Weir and Twachtman." New-York Tribune, February 7, 1889, p. 7, as In the Woods.
Sun 1889–II probably
"Weir and Twachtman Pictures." Sun (New York), February 8, 1889, p. 3, as In the Woods.
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. 513 (catalogue G, no. 758), as In the Woods. (Hale concordance).
Commentary

This painting is likely to have been In the Woods, a work included in the 1889 sale of work by Twachtman and Julian Alden Weir at Fifth Avenue Art Galleries with the dimensions of 18 x 14 inches. The painting was noticed by a New York Times critic, who commented: "Joyous greens of the springtide run riot in the delicate sketch 'In the Woods' and seem bent on proving that all which is claimed for water colors can be attained by oils." This description fits a work with much translucency and the fresh greens of spring. The brook featured resembles but is not Horseneck Brook. It depicts a wilder and more wooded site than that of Twachtman's Greenwich property. If the work was shown in 1889, it could not be a view of Greenwich, where Twachtman settled in February 1890. Possibly it derived from the artist's trip to Keene Valley, New York, in August 1882, where Weir had a summer home. 

The New-York Daily Tribune described In the Woods as among “studies in gray and green” and the New York Sun reported that the painting was purchased from the sale for $65.