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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.1517
View from the Holley House
Alternate title: Winter Landscape
ca. 1901–02
Oil on panel
8 1/4 x 9 1/2 in. (21 x 24.1 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman; Inscribed lower right: To Mrs. E. L. Holley
Georgia Museum of Art of the University of Georgia, Athens, Gift of C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry (2018.50)
Image: Roz Akin
Provenance
Mrs. Edward L. Holley, Cos Cob, Connecticut;
(Sotheby's, New York, April 20, 1979, lot 40);
(Ara Danikian);
to (Spanierman, 1986);
to Mr. and Mrs. C. Herman Terry, 1990;
gift to present collection, 2018.
Exhibitions
1985 Danforth Museum of Art
Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, Massachusetts, The Ten American Painters: An Impressionist Tradition, May 5–June 30, 1985, as View from the Holley House, lent by Ara Danikian.
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. 67, pp. 214–15 ill. in color, as View from the Holley House, shown only in New York. Traveled to: Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, July 13–October 29, 2006.
Literature
Sotheby Parke Bernet 1979–I
American 19th- and 20th-Century Paintings, Drawings, Watercolors, and Sculpture. Auction catalogue, April 20, 1979. New York: Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1979, lot 40 ill. in b/w, as Winter Landscape.
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. 214–15 ill. in color, as View from the Holley House.
Commentary

Inscribed “To Mrs. E. L. Holley,” this painting was a gift from Twachtman to his close friend Josephine Holley, who along with her husband, Edward, ran the Holley House. It was from the inn that Twachtman taught art classes in the 1890s, often along with Julian Alden Weir. Twachtman and Josephine, who he called “Joe,” developed an affectionate friendship, which deepened in Twachtman's last years, when he often boarded at Holley House, receiving her care and attention. However, this is the only painting that Twachtman is known to have given to her.

Rendered on a rust-red cigar box top—used often by the artist in Gloucester—the painting depicts the view from the Holley House porch looking north across the mill pond, where a dam doubled as a bridge. The building in the right distance is a store, its walls painted red, that stood next to the defunct Palmer & Duff shipyard (see Bridge in Winter, OP.1513). 

[1] Twachtman, The Players, New York, January 17, 1902, to Josephine Holley, Cos Cob, Connecticut, Archives, Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut.

[2] Twachtman, The Players, New York, February 4, 1902, Archives, Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut.