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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.1161
Road over the Hill
Alternate title: Road to Round Hill
1890s
Oil on panel
19 x 20 in. (48.3 x 50.8 cm)
Stamped lower left: Twachtman Sale [1903 estate sale]
Private collection
Image: Roz Akin
Provenance
(American Art Galleries, New York, Twachtman estate sale, March 24, 1903, no. 48);
to Edward A. Rorke, Brooklyn;
(Frank Rehn Gallery, New York);
to Dr. Diane Tannenbaum, New York, 1970;
to Robert Austin, 1992;
(Jordan-Volpe Gallery, New York);
to present collection, 1999.
Exhibitions
1903–I American Art Galleries
American Art Galleries, New York, Sale of the Work of the Late John H. Twachtman, exhibition and auction, March 19–24, 1903, no. 48, as Road over the Hill.
2006 Spanierman
Spanierman Gallery, New York, John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter," May 4–June 24, 2006. (Nelson 2006); (Parkes 2006); (Peters 2006–I); (Peters 2006–II); (Peters 2006–III); (Peters 2006–IV), no. 42, as Road over the Hill, shown only in New York. Traveled to: Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, July 13–October 29, 2006.
Literature
Sun 1903–II
"Twachtman Pictures, $16,610." Sun (New York), March 25, 1903, p. 5, as Road over the Hill.
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. 486 (catalogue G, no. 513), as Road over the Hill. (Hale concordance).
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, p. 423; vol. 2, p. 964 ill. in b/w (fig. 463), as Road to Round Hill.
Peters 2006–IV
Peters, Lisa N. "Catalogue." In John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter", by Lisa N. Peters. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Spanierman), pp. 162–63 ill. in color, as Road over the Hill.
Commentary

Here Twachtman’s incorporation of a toned ground into his composition and a palette of warm yellow greens and lilac pinks  suggest the influence of the pastel method he developed in Branchville in the late 1880s. This scene can, nonetheless, be identified as a view of Round Hill Road snaking through the undulating countryside. The painting was included with its current title in the artist’s 1903 estate sale. Its purchaser was Edward A. Rorke (1856–1905), a Brooklyn painter of genre scenes and landscapes.[1] The painting was next in the hands of Frank Knox Morton Rehn (1886–1956), who promoted the works of American Scene painters—including Edward Hopper and Charles Burchfield—in his gallery in the 1920s and 1930s.[2]

[1] Rorke was a member of group called the Brooklyn Ten in 1901–2. The other painters in this group were W. S. Barrett, Frederick Boston, Joseph Boston, Charles Burlingame, Paul Dougherty, Benjamin Eggleston, George McCord, Harry Roseland, and Gustave Wiegand. In 1903 the Brooklyn Ten became known as the Society of Brooklyn Painters; their first annual exhibition was held at the Hooper Gallery at 593 Fulton Street, Brooklyn.

[2] The gallery remained in existence for twenty-five years after Rehn’s death in 1956.