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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.1173
The Chicago World's Fair, Illinois Building
Alternate title: World's Fair Exposition Buildings
ca. 1893
Oil on canvas
12 x 16 in. (30.5 x 40.6 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman–
Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, Gift of Ann Abrams (2020.029.001)
Provenance
William Merritt Chase;
to (American Art Association, New York, Chase sale, March 7, 1912, lot 33, as World's Fair Exposition Buildings);
to A. C. Barnes or John Gellatly, New York (probably Barnes);
(Kennedy Galleries, New York);
(Andrew Crispo Gallery, New York);
(Sotheby's, New York, June 4, 1982, lot 84);
to Ann Abrams, Atlanta, 1982;
gift to present collection, 2020.
Literature
American Art Association 1912–II
Valuable Paintings and Water Colors Forming the Private Collection of William Merritt Chase, N.A. Auction catalogue, March 7, 1912. New York: American Art Association, 1912, lot 33, as World's Fair Exposition Buildings.
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. 444 (catalogue G, no. 156), as World's Fair Exposition Buildings. (Hale concordance).
Sotheby's New York 1982
American Impressionist and 20th-Century Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture. Auction catalogue, June 4, 1982. New York: Sotheby's, 1982, lot 82 ill., as World's Fair Exposition Buildings.
Commentary

Known as World’s Fair Exposition Buildings when it was in the collection of William Merritt Chase, this painting has subsequently been identified as a view looking toward the Columbian Exposition’s Illinois building, seen from across one of the artificial lagoons built for the Chicago fair. Although Twachtman did not visit the “White City,” he gave this scene a sense of firsthand observation in the grassy foreground and the casual figures who gaze contemplatively at the buildings in the distance, which brought “Venice” to the shores of Lake Michigan.

The painting was among those created by Twachtman on assignment by Frank Millet for a deluxe history of the fair, which was never published. The work was sold from the Chase sale in 1912 to either a purchaser named A. C. Barnes (whose name is written into a copy of the catalogue) or to John Gellatly. 

Selected Literature

From American Art Association 1912–II

The Exposition buildings with their domes, turrets and flags are seen under a pale gray sky patched with white clouds, across a lagoon which reflects their faint buff tones and the neutral hue of the sky. Men on the nearer bank are surveying the scene, two of them conversing and a third standing alone on the bank. Out on the water a gondola is filled with passengers.