Catalogue Entry
Captain John F. Bickford was a navy captain in the Civil War and later operated a whaling schooner. In this painting, Twachtman depicted the Gloucester dock named for him, arranging near and far elements against the picture plane in the manner of a Japanese print.
Twachtman portrayed this painting in one of the charcoal sketches he sent to his son Alden, recording the work he created in the summer of 1900 (D.1405). On the verso of the sketch, he wrote “12 x 18” and “after your pen sketch,” suggesting that Alden had also made an image of this subject earlier in the summer. The painting was included in three of Twachtman’s 1901 exhibitions (Chicago, New York, and Cincinnati). The New York Times reviewer referenced it in the comment: “Views of Gloucester, Mass., sparkle with distant waves and shine with colors on houses and ships as do ‘Captain Bickford’s Float,’ and ‘East Gloucester [probably OP.1406],’ and ‘White Dories [OP.1410].’”
The work sold from the artist’s 1903 estate sale for $64 to an individual named G. L. Baugh, as reported in newspaper accounts of the sale. In 1954 it was purchased by Knoedler Galleries from the art dealer Victor Spark for $600.[1] Spark sold it in 1962 to Margaret and Raymond Horowitz, who gave it to the White House in 1979 when Jimmy Carter was President.[2]
[1] Knoedler Book 10, stock no. A5570, p. 119, row 49, Knoedler Dealer Stock Books, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.
[2] Knoedler Book 11, stock no. A5570, p. 32, row 53, Knoedler Dealer Stock Books.