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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Keywords
OP.302
End of the Pier, New York Harbor
Alternate titles: End of the Pier; New York Harbor; Waterfront in New York
ca. 1879
Oil on canvas
12 1/8 x 18 in. (30.8 x 45.7 cm)
Signed, dated, and inscribed lower right: J. H. Twachtman N.Y. 79 [date is indistinct] Signed lower left: J.H.T.
Paul and Sandra Ackerman Family Collection, Los Angeles
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. 5, as End of the Pier.
1907–I Lotos Club
Lotos Club, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by the Late John H. Twachtman, January 5–31, 1907, no. 38, as New York Harbor, lent by J. Alden Weir.
1958 Lyman Allyn Museum
Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, Connecticut, The Art of J. Frank Currier and Painters of the Munich School, February 9–March 9, 1958, no. 67, as Waterfront in New York, lent by Mr. and Mrs. Page Ely, Old Lyme,CT.
2006 Spanierman
Spanierman Gallery, New York, John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter," May 4–June 24, 2006. (Nelson 2006); (Parkes 2006); (Peters 2006–I); (Peters 2006–II); (Peters 2006–III); (Peters 2006–IV), no. 6, pp. 39, 90-91 ill. in color, as End of the Pier, New York Harbor, shown only in New York. Traveled to: Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, July 13–October 29, 2006.
Literature
Sun 1903–II
"Twachtman Pictures, $16,610." Sun (New York), March 25, 1903, p. 5, as End of the Pier.
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, pp. 454 (catalogue G, no. 240,New York Harbor as ), 563 (catalogue A, no. 462), as End of the Pier. (Hale concordance).
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. 81; vol. 2, p. 621 ill. in b/w (fig. 66), as End of the Pier, New York Harbor.
Peters 2006–II
Peters, Lisa N. "Twachtman's Realist Art and the Aesthetic Liberation of Modern Life." In John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter", by Lisa N. Peters. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Spanierman), p. 39, as End of the Pier, New York Harbor.
Peters 2006–IV
Peters, Lisa N. "Catalogue." In John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter", by Lisa N. Peters. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Spanierman), pp. 90–91 ill. in color, as End of the Pier, New York Harbor.
Commentary

In this scene, Twachtman captured the bustle of New York's industrialized waterfront in the late 1870s. His view in the work, at the level of the pier, draws the viewer's eye on the rapidly receding diagonal, cluttered with warehouses, cranes, smokestacks, and barges, into the distance. The artist placed an American flag at the vanishing point, around which smoke swirls from a tugboat, as if to label the scene and its energy as distinctively American. At the right edge of the composition, the form extending into the harbor is perhaps one of New York's floating garbage dumps, some of which were large enough to be divided into rooms where indigents lived and from which they sold retrieved items.

Finding aesthetic value in such a modern life subject, this painting anticipates the works created in the early twentieth century by New York Realists, such as William Glackens and George Luks. 

Several titles have been assigned to this work. It was listed as End of the Pier in Twachtman’s 1903 estate sale. There it was purchased for $50 by Julian Alden Weir, who acquired it along with six other works. When Weir sent the painting four years later to Twachtman's memorial show at the Lotos Club, New York, it was identified in the catalogue as New York Harbor. The painting was shown as Waterfront in New York in 1958, when Weir’s daughter Caroline (Mrs. G. Page Ely) lent it to an exhibition at the Lyman Allyn Museum in New London, Connecticut.