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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
Willows, ca. 1895 (OP.974). Fig. 1. The Willows, E. and A. Milch Inc. label on verso.
Fig. 1. The Willows, E. and A. Milch Inc. label on verso.
Related Work
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Keywords
OP.974
Willows
Alternate title: The Willow
ca. 1895
Oil on canvas
30 x 26 in. (76.2 x 66 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman–
Private collection
Provenance
Martha Twachtman, the artist's wife, Greenwich, Connecticut;
to her daughter, Violet Twachtman Baker, New York;
to her daughter, Martha Twachtman, Italy;
to (Milch, 1917);
to Horatio S. Rubens, New York, 1919;
to Horatio S. Rubens estate, by 1942;
John N. Irwin II, by the 1970s;
by descent to present collection, 2001.
Exhibitions
1900–I St. Botolph Club
St. Botolph Club, Boston, Exhibition of Paintings by J. H. Twachtman and His Son, J. Alden Twachtman, February 26–March 13, 1900, no. 6, as Willows.
1901–I Durand-Ruel
Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, Paintings and Pastels by John H. Twachtman, March 4–16, 1901, as Willows.
1901–I Cincinnati Art Museum
Cincinnati Art Museum, Exhibition of Sixty Paintings by Mr. John H. Twachtman, Formerly Resident in Cincinnati, April 12–May 16, 1901, no. 8, as Willows.
1907 Carnegie Institute
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Eleventh Annual Carnegie Institute International Exhibition, April 11–June 13, 1907, no. 461, as Willows.
1917 Philadelphia Art Alliance
Philadelphia Art Alliance, Pastels and Oils by John H. Twachtman, November 1917, as The Willow.
1925 Dallas Art Association
Stoneleigh Court, Dallas, The Fifth Annual Exhibition of the Dallas Art Association, November 16–December 1, 1925, no. 129, as Willows.
1936–I Milch
Milch, New York, Important Exhibition of Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century American Painters, February 3–29, 1936, no. 6, as Willows.
1942–I Babcock probably
Babcock Galleries, New York, Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels by John H. Twachtman, February 9–28, 1942, no. 10, as The Willow.
Literature
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. 509 (catalogue G, no. 710), as Willows. (Hale concordance).
Commentary

Willows, known also as The Willow, is related to Spring (OP.975). In both paintings, Twachtman brought together two aspects of his Greenwich property: Horseneck Brook, shielded by trees on both banks, and one of his children, negotiating the waterway in a flat-bottomed sailboat. This subject matter can be associated with the Voyage of Life theme, in which the progress of boats on waterways represent life moving ever forward. Here it seems that the solitary child is bent over in the boat, possibly trying to direct it away from the shore. 

Willows was one of eleven works included in Twachtman’s 1900 exhibitions at the St. Botolph Club and the Cincinnati Art Museum. The painting belonged to the artist’s wife and descended in the family until 1917, when it was acquired by Milch Gallery (fig. 1). It was sold from the gallery two years later to the lawyer and art collector Horatio Seymour Rubens (1869–1941), and passed to in his estate in 1942.[1]

[1] A typed catalogue of paintings from the home of Horatio Rubens indicates that this work was shown at the Philadelphia Art Alliance in 1917. Horatio Rubens Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., roll N48, frame 823.