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

Catalogue Entry

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Keywords
OP.948
My Summer Studio
Alternate titles: House on Rocks above Pool and Stream; My Autumn Studio; Summer Studio
Late 1890s
Oil on canvas
30 x 30 in. (76.2 x 76.2 cm)
Stamped lower left: Twachtman Sale [1903 estate sale]
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
Provenance
(American Art Association, New York, Twachtman estate sale, March 24, 1903, no. 18);
to (Cottier & Co., New York, 1903);
Mrs. John E. (Gertrude) Cowdin;
to (American Art Association, New York, May 9–11, 1916, lot 77, as House on Rocks above Pool and Stream);
Alexander Morten;
to (American Art Association, New York, Morten sale, May 29, 1919, lot 80);
to (Kraushaar Galleries, New York);
to present collection, 1919.
Exhibitions
1901–I Cincinnati Art Museum
Cincinnati Art Museum, Exhibition of Sixty Paintings by Mr. John H. Twachtman, Formerly Resident in Cincinnati, April 12–May 16, 1901, no. 33, as Summer Studio.
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. 18, as My Summer Studio.
1907–I Lotos Club
Lotos Club, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by the Late John H. Twachtman, January 5–31, 1907, no. 6, as My Summer Studio, lent by Mrs. John E. Cowdin.
1920–II Knoedler
Knoedler Galleries, New York, Loan Exhibition from the Duncan Phillips Collection, June 1920, no. 28, as Summer Studio.
1975 Phillips Collection and Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service
Phillips Collection and Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service, University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie, American Paintings from the Phillips Collection, September 28–November 2, 1975, as My Autumn Studio. Traveled to: Utah State College, Salt Lake City, November 14–December 19, 1975; University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, April 6–May 9, 1976; Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C, District of Columbia, May 29–September 5, 1976; Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, December 29, 1976–February 18, 1977.
1987 Spanierman
Spanierman Gallery, New York, Twachtman in Gloucester: His Last Years, 1900–1902, May 12–June 13, 1987. (Exhibition catalogue: Boyle 1987); (Exhibition catalogue: Gerdts 1987); (Exhibition catalogue: Hale 1987); (Exhibition catalogue: Peters 1987), no. 17, as My Autumn Studio.
Literature
Sun 1903–II
"Twachtman Pictures, $16,610." Sun (New York), March 25, 1903, p. 5, as My Summer Studio.
New York Times 1903–III
"Twachtman Picture Sale." New York Times, March 25, 1903, p. 5, as My Summer Studio.
American Art Association 1916
Valuable Ancient and Modern Paintings. Auction catalogue. May 9–11, 1916. New York: American Art Association, 1916, lot 77, as House on Rocks above Pool and Stream.
American Art Association 1919–II
91 Paintings from the Collections of Alexander Morten, Frank R. Lawrence, and James S. Inglis. Auction catalogue, May 19, 1919. New York: American Art Association, 1919, lot 80, as My Summer Studio.
Phillips Collection 1952
The Phillips Collection: A Museum of Modern Art and Its Sources. Washington, D.C.: Phillips Collection, 1952, p. 102, as My Autumn Studio.
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. 571 (catalogue A, no. 602), as Summer Studio. (Hale concordance).
Boyle 1987
Boyle, Richard J. "John Twachtman's Gloucester Years." In Twachtman in Gloucester: His Last Years, 1900–1902, by John Douglass Hale, Richard J. Boyle, and William H. Gerdts. New York: Universe and Ira Spanierman Gallery, 1987. Exhibition catalogue (1987 Spanierman), p. 22, as My Autumn Studio.
Peters 1987
Peters, Lisa N. "Catalogue." In Twachtman in Gloucester: His Last Years, 1900–1902, by John Douglass Hale, Richard J. Boyle, and William H. Gerdts. New York: Universe and Ira Spanierman Gallery. Exhibition catalogue (1987 Spanierman), pp. 82–83 ill. in color, as My Autumn Studio.
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. 389; vol. 2, p. 939 ill. in b/w (fig. 425), as My Autumn Studio.
Passantino 1999
Passantino, Erika D. The Eye of Duncan Phillips: A Collection in the Making. Washington, D.C.: Phillips Collection in association with Yale University, 1999, pp. 159–60 ill. in color, as My Autumn Studio.
Commentary

Twachtman exhibited this painting as Summer Studio in his 1901 exhibition at the Cincinnati Art Museum. That this was the painting’s original title provides evidence of the existence of the small studio that stood on the hill overlooking Horseneck Brook. The date at which the building was constructed is unknown, and this is the only extant image of it, so it may not have lasted long. Shaded by trees, with its red-brick foundation set into the rocks, the small structure appears here blended into its surroundings. In the painting, Twachtman made his presence part of the work’s subject matter, as it offers a view from the brook to the perch from which he usually gazed in the opposite direction.

The painting was sold from the artist’s estate sale in 1903 with the title of My Summer Studio to Cottier & Company, New York. It was next owned by Mrs. John E. (Gertrude Cheever) Cowdin (1863–1908), the wife of a silk merchant and polo player, who also owned The White Bridge (OP.983). Both paintings were sold as part of her estate in 1916. At that time the painting was known as House on Rocks above Pool and Stream. Subsequently purchased by New York collector Alexander Morten, it was included in the 1919 sale of Morten’s collection at the American Art Association, from which it was acquired by Kraushaar Galleries, probably on behalf of Duncan Phillips.

The painting became part of the collection of the museum Phillips opened in 1921. By that time, Phillips owned three other works by Twachtman: Summer (OP.918), Winter (OP.950), and Spring (P.916). Out of his desire for each of the paintings he owned by Twachtman to depict a different season, Phillips changed the title of this work to My Autumn Studio. It was not until 1999 that its estate title name was restored. (It was suggested, incorrectly, that this painting might be a view of Gloucester in the 1987 exhibition Twachtman in Gloucester: His Last Years, 1900–1902.)

Selected Literature

From 1916 American Art Galleries 

A pool amid great bowlders and the water flowing out on the left fill the forepart of the picture. On the farther shore of the pool, perches high up on the rocks, is a little white house. Herbage of varicolored tints and the thin foliage of some slender trees and saplings diversity the scheme of color, which includes pale grays, pinks, blues, violets, and greens.

From 1919 American Art Association–II 

A stream wandering in a steep country is filled with rich reflections of the plentitude of color in the flora and herbage of its banks—pink, green, yellow, purple, red, and blue,—and an offshoot turns and rushes down the foreground between boulders and a low bank not less colorful. The farther bank in the background is high, reaching out of the picture, and on a ledge of it stands a white cottage surmounting a basement story of red brick.