loading loading
John Henry Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné
An online catalogue by Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D., in collaboration with the Greenwich Historical Society

Catalogue Entry

enlarge
Additional Images
The Rainbow's Source, 1890s (OP.1133). OP.1133, Rainbow's Source,detail with signature.
OP.1133, Rainbow's Source,detail with signature.
Image: Lisa N. Peters
Keywords
OP.1133
The Rainbow's Source
Alternate titles: Rainbow's Source; The Waterfall; Waterfall
1890s
Oil on canvas
36 x 25 1/4 in. (91.4 x 64.1 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman–
Saint Louis Art Museum, Museum Purchase (124:1921)
Provenance
Henry Smith, New York, 1909;
to (Vose, 1919);
to present collection, 1921.
Exhibitions
1910 Lotos Club
Lotos Club, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by French and American Luminists, December 17, 1910 and following days, no. 40, as The Waterfall, lent by Henry Smith.
1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition
Department of Fine Arts, San Francisco, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, February 20–December 4, 1915, no. 4072, as Waterfall, lent by Henry Smith, Esq.
1920 Vose
Vose Gallery, Boston, group show, March 1920, as The Rainbow's Source.
1921 Vose
Vose Gallery, Boston, Masterworks by American Artists, April 1921, as The Rainbow's Source.
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. 67, as The Rainbow's Source, lent by the City Art Museum of St. Louis.
1982 Saint Louis Art Museum
Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri, Impressionism Reflected: American Art, 1890–1920, May 8–June 27, 1982, as The Rainbow's Source.
1989–II National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., District of Columbia, John Twachtman: Connecticut Landscapes, October 15, 1989–January 28, 1990. (Exhibition catalogue: Chotner 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Pyne 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Peters 1989–I), no. 6, p. 94 ill. in color, as The Rainbow's Source. Traveled to: Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, March 18–May 20, 1990.
Literature
Woodward 1920
Woodward, Sidney. "Boston." American Art News 18 (March 27, 1920), pp. 1 ill. in b/w, 3, as The Rainbow's Source.
Philpott 1921
Philpott, A. J. "Masterwork Shown at Vose Gallery." Boston Globe, April 9, 1921, p. 2, as Rainbow's Source.
St. Louis Globe-Democrat 1921
"Art and Artists." St. Louis Globe-Democrat, July 10, 1921, p. c3, as The Rainbow's Source.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch 1921
"Impressionistic Painting by Twachtman Now at Museum." St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 1, 1921, p. 45, as The Rainbow's Source.
St. Louis Star and Times 1921
"News of the St. Louis Art World: Painting by J. H. Twachtman." St. Louis Star and Times, May 3, 1921, p. 18, as The Rainbow's Source.
Bulletin of the City Art Museum of St. Louis 1922
R.A.H. "A Painting by John H. Twachtman." Bulletin of the City Art Museum of St. Louis 7 (January 1922), pp. 25–26 ill. in b/w, as The Rainbow's Source.
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. 565 (catalogue A, no. 487), as Rainbow's Source. (Hale concordance).
Boyle 1974–I
Boyle, Richard. American Impressionism. Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1974, p. 166, as The Rainbow's Source.
Saint Louis Art Museum 1975
The Saint Louis Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections. St. Louis: Saint Louis Art Museum, 1975, as The Rainbow's Source.
Gerdts 1984
Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. New York: Abbeville, 1984, pp. 159, 161 ill. in color, as The Rainbow's Source.
Commentary

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.

Selected Literature

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.