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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Catalogue Entry

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Additional Images
Dordrecht, 1881 (OP.610). OP.610, Dordrecht, details showing labels.
OP.610, Dordrecht, details showing labels.
Related Work
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Keywords
OP.610
Dordrecht
Alternate title: Near Ostend
1881
Oil on canvas
15 x 22 in. (38.1 x 55.9 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: J. H. Twachtman– 1881
Private collection
Exhibitions
1903–I American Art Galleries
American Art Galleries, New York, Sale of the Work of the Late John H. Twachtman, exhibition and auction, March 19–24, 1903, no. 69, as Near Ostend.
1905 Lotos Club
Lotos Club, New York, Exhibition of American Paintings from the Collection of John Harsen Rhoades, Esq., December 23, 1905 and following days, no. 58, as Near Ostend.
Literature
New-York Tribune 1903–I
"Art Exhibitions: The Twachtman, Colman and Burritt Collections." New-York Tribune, March 21, 1903, p. 9, as Near Ostend.
New-York Tribune 1903–II
"Twachtman Pictures, $16,610: Former Pupils Applaud Sales of Favorite Canvases." New-York Tribune, March 25, 1903, p. 9, as Near Ostend.
Sun 1903–II
"Twachtman Pictures, $16,610." Sun (New York), March 25, 1903, p. 5, as Near Ostend.
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. 479 (catalogue G, no. 451), as Near Ostend. (Hale concordance).
Commentary

Dated 1881, this painting was included in Twachtman's 1903 estate sale as Near Ostend. This suggests that at some point during their 1881 honeymoon, John and Martha Twachtman traveled to the Belgian coast, perhaps on a day trip from Dordrecht. Nonetheless, the painting has a close resemblance to the etching, Boats on the Maas (E.703), a Dutch view, in which the configuration of the vessels and the forms on the horizon line appear to be in reverse.  

The painting was purchased from Twachtman's 1903 estate sale by John Harsen Rhoades (1838–1906), president of the Greenwich Savings Bank (Connecticut). The painting was included in a 1905 exhibition at the Lotos Club of Rhoades’s collection.

Selected Literature

From New-York Tribune 1903–I

[This painting demonstrates that Twachtman's] special gift was for the swift and eloquent notation of fleeting effects of light and atmosphere. At the outset he exercised this gift subject to the conditions which had prevailed for more than a generation among most American and French artists. There are a few of his earlier pictures here, the delightful sea piece, “Near Ostend,” painted in 1881, the “Normandy River” and “The Windmill Holland” . . . . These pictures make their appeal through delicate drawing and excellence of workmanship in general; they have a savor of originality.