John Henry Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné
An online catalogue by Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D., in collaboration with the Greenwich Historical Society
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Keywords
OP.513
Dark Trees, Cincinnati
Alternate title: The Valley
1882
Oil on canvas
32 x 48 in. (81.3 x 121.9 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: J. H. Twachtman 1882
Private collection
Image: Roz Akin
Exhibitions
1919 Macbeth
Macbeth Gallery, New York, Paintings by John H. Twachtman, January 1919, no. 4, as The Valley (32 1/2 x 48 in.; signed lower left; dated 1882).
1919–II Vose
R. C. & N. M. Vose, Boston, Exhibition of Paintings by J. H. Twachtman, November 10–22, 1919, no. 6, as The Valley.
1966 Cincinnati Art Museum
Cincinnati Art Museum, John Henry Twachtman: A Retrospective Exhibition, October 7–November 20, 1966. (Exhibition catalogue: Baskett 1966); (Exhibition catalogue: Boyle 1966–I), no. 18, as Dark Trees, Cincinnati, lent by Mr. and Mrs. Godfrey Twachtman, Independence, Missouri.
1967 Maynard Walker Gallery
Maynard Walker Gallery, New York, Collectors' Finds, February 20–March 11, 1967, ill. b/w, as Dark Trees, Cincinnati.
1969 Knoedler
M. Knoedler & Co, New York, American Paintings, 1750–1950, May 20–June 20, 1969, no. 73, as Dark Trees, Cincinnati.
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. 12, as Dark Trees, Cincinnati, shown only in New York. Traveled to: Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, July 13–October 29, 2006.
2020–21 Canton Museum of Art
Dancing in the Light: Masterworks from the Age of American Impressionism, November 27, 2020–March 7, 2021, as Dark Trees, Cincinnati.
Literature
Britton 1919
Britton, James. "Exhibition Now On: Twachtmans at Macbeth's." American Art News 17 (January 11, 1919), p. 2, as The Valley.
Clark 1924 probably
Clark, Eliot. John Twachtman. New York: privately printed, 1924, p. 34, as The Valley.
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. 501 (catalogue G, no. 639), as The Valley, 574 (catalogue A, no. 633), as Dark Trees, Cincinnati. (Hale concordance).
Young 1967–II
Young, Mahonri Sharp. "Letter from the USA: Fantastics and Eccentrics." Apollo 85–86 (June 1967), p. 466 ill. in b/w, as Dark Trees, Cincinnati.
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. 161; vol. 2, p. 694 ill. in b/w (fig. 155), as Dark Trees, Cincinnati.
Peters 2006–II
Peters, Lisa N. "Twachtman's Realist Art and the Aesthetic Liberation of Modern Life." In John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter", by Lisa N. Peters. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Spanierman), p. 49, as Dark Trees, Cincinnati.
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. 102–3 ill. in color, as Dark Trees, Cincinnati.
Commentary

Dated 1882, this is one of the largest paintings created by Twachtman at the time he lived in the home of his father-in-law in the Cincinnati suburb of Avondale. The image is of a landscape in which a path leads from the foreground through a countryside of trees providing shade and open areas of lawn. The low vantage point makes the work human scaled and accessible, while the terrain seems more park-like than wilderness. Possibly the site is within Burnet Woods, a ninety-acre park in the Clifton neighborhood of Cincinnati, purchased by the city in 1872. In his 1875, Illustrated Cincinnati, D. J. Kenny commented that the park was "thickly wooded with fine forest trees" and noted that the city had made only a few improvements to it so that the natural beauty of its scenery was "very remarkable."[1] The park was just west of Avondale. Twachtman's use of the park for subject matter is demonstrated by his painting titled Burnet Woods (10 x 15 inches, location unknown) that was included in the auction of his work and that of Julian Alden Weir, held February 7, 1889 at Fifth Avenue Art Galleries.

Hale listed this work as Dark Trees, Cincinnati (oil on canvas, 34 x 48 in., signed and dated lower left: J. H. Twachtman 1882) at a time when it was in the collection of the artist’s son Godfrey. However, the painting appears to have been titled The Valley when it was included in the solo show held at Macbeth Gallery in 1919 (see Selected literature). Clark’s description of The Valley also confirms this earlier titling. The painting remained in the artist’s family until the 1960s. It was exhibited in 1969 at Knoedler, but only reemerged in 2006.

[1] D. J. Kenny, Illustrated Cincinnati: A Pictorial Hand-Book of the Queen City (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke, 1875), p. 125

Selected Literature

From 1919 Macbeth 

A veritable riot of greens, luscious in their varying shades, and in the height of their summer grandeur. Meadow flowers grow in the foreground, and just beyond we catch a glimpse of an old counry road as it disappears down the valley. Across the road the meadows slope upward to a richly wooded hill whose trees are sharply outlined against a sky heavily banked with gray and white clouds indicative of approaching rain [32 1/2 x 48, sighed at the lower left and dated 1882].

From Clark 1924

“The Valley,” painted in 1882, is one of the largest pictures of the Avondale period. The trees are in full foliage, the color scheme dark green and gray, the painting full and vigorous, but the composition is somewhat overburdened.