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This scene—a view looking north along Horseneck Brook with the falls near the apex of the vertical arrangement—was rendered in spring, when the brook was at its fullest and swiftest. The painting was known as Waterfall until 1920. In that year, in an issue of American Art News it was illustrated as The Rainbow’s Source, referencing its prismatic hues; that name was retained.
Rendering the work on thick burlap-weave canvas, Twachtman used dry pigment over the rough surface in the land and foliage, while for the water he laid down white impaso freely, letting the movement of his brush convey the downward motion and splash of the rapidly falling water.
The painting was in the artist’s estate until 1909, when it was purchased by the New York art collector Henry Smith. Smith lent the painting to an exhibition at the Lotos Club in New York, in 1910 as well as to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. In March 1920 the painting was included in a group exhibition at Vose Gallery in Boston. In the aforementioned article in the American Art News, Sidney Woodward remarked: “Unquestionably the finest work shown is the Twachtman, ‘The Rainbow’s Source’ . . . one of his very best canvases, and certainly a work of rare beauty. In the midst of sunlit woodland there pours down a waterfall, breaking into turbulent waves, make a rising mist shot through with sun rays. The picture is vaporous, opalescent, luminous, the suggestion of matter rather than matter itself, mist and sunshine woven into an iridescent web of joyous color.”
In a letter in the painting’s file at the Saint Louis Art Museum, Robert C. Vose of Vose Galleries attested to his purchase of the painting on November 7, 1919 and stated “Twachtman I consider easily the greatest American Impressionist, and this is to me his masterpiece, with iridescence of color, a breadth and beauty of technique and atmospheric quality unsurpassed, if equalled, in French Impressionism.”
The painting was again on view at Vose in April 1921, in a show of "masterworks." In a review, A. J. Philpott deemed it one of Twachtman's best pictures, describing it as an image of a "tumbling mountain brook through a dazzling veil of light. By May, the painting was part of a temporary exhibition at the City Art Museum, which acquired the work from Vose on November 17, 1921. Eventually the museum permanently changed its name to the Saint Louis Art Museum.
From Bulletin of the City Art Museum of St. Louis 1922
“The Rainbow’s Source” . . . represents the falls . . . seen through early morning mists. The various forms are dimly suggested, here and there rocks and trees, a distant hill, and a bit of sky. The water as it tumbles over the hidden stones sparkles with all the colors of an opal. So delicate yet so brilliant are the colors, one thinks of the iridescence of ancient glass that flakes and falls at the touch.
- Museum website (slam.org)