John Henry Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné
An online catalogue by Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D., in collaboration with the Greenwich Historical Society
Catalogue Entry
P.701
Dutch Landscape
ca. 1885
Pastel on paper
12 1/2 x 12 1/2 in. (31.8 x 31.8 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman–
Private collection
Image: Roz Akin
Provenance
to private collection;
to present collection, 2001.
Exhibitions
Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York, American Realist and Impressionist Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Haig Tashjian,, April 18–June 6, 1982, p. 67 ill., as Dutch Landscape. Traveled to: Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Yonkers, New York, January 10–March 20, 1982.
Nassau County Museum of Fine Art, Roslyn, New York, William Cullen Bryant, The Weirs and American Impressionism, April 24–July 31, 1983, no. 58, p. 60 ill., as Dutch Landscape.
Literature
American Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture. Auction catalogue, May 25, 1988. New York: Sotheby's, 1988, lot 39 ill. in b/w, as Dutch Landscape.
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, p. 212; vol. 2, p. 739 ill. in b/w (fig. 208), as Dutch Landscape.
Auction catalogue, October 24, 2000. Chicago: Sotheby's, 2000, lot 1400 ill. in color, as Dutch Landscape.
Peters, Lisa N. "Twachtman and the Equipoise of Impressionism and Tonalism." In John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter", by Lisa N Peters. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Spanierman), p. 57 col. ill. in b/w (Fig. 52), as Dutch Landscape.
Commentary
This Dutch pastel seems inspired by Whistler’s Nocturnes in its tonal harmony and indeterminate shapes and distances. However, it is not a purely art-for-art’s-sake conception, as it demonstrates Twachtman’s close attention to what he observed. This is evident in his inclusion of the moving blades of the windmill situated prominently in the scene and boats anchored at the shore whose masts cast long reflections in the water.