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.949
Barn in Winter, Greenwich, Connecticut
Alternate title: Winter Harmony
Early 1890s
Oil on canvas
18 x 26 in. (45.7 x 66 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman
Private collection, Courtesy of Art Finance Partners LLC
Image: Roz Akin
Provenance
(Vose, 1967);
to private collection, Minnesota, 1968;
to (Spanierman, 1986);
to Sidney Sheldon, 1990;
to (Sotheby's, New York, May 18, 2005, lot 22);
to (Spanierman, 2005);
to private collection, 2012;
to present collection, 2018.
Exhibitions
2005 Spanierman
Spanierman Gallery, New York, The Poetic Vision: American Tonalism, November 12, 2005–January 7, 2006, no. 39, pp. 171 ill. in color, 172, as Barn in Winter, Greenwich, Connecticut.
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. 40, as Barn in Winter, Greenwich, Connecticut. Traveled to: Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, July 13–October 29, 2006.
2008 Clark Art Institute
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, Like Breath on Glass: Whistler, Inness, and the Art of Painting Softly, June 22–October 19, 2008. (Hartley 2008); (Simpson 2008); (Stoner 2008), no. 22, ill. in color, as Barn in Winter, Greenwich, Connecticut.
2022 Greenwich Historical Society
Greenwich Historical Society, Cos Cob, Connecticut, Life and Art: The Greenwich Paintings of John Henry Twachtman, October 19, 2022–January 22, 2023. (Peters 2021–II), no. 2, as Barn in Winter, Greenwich, Connecticut.
Literature
Peters 1989–I
Peters, Lisa N. "Twachtman's Greenwich Paintings: Context and Chronology." In John Twachtman: Connecticut Landscapes, by Deborah Chotner, Lisa N. Peters, and Kathleen A. Pyne. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1989. Exhibition catalogue (1989–II National Gallery of Art), p. 26 ill. in b/w, 37, as Winter Harmony.
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. 349; vol. 2, p. 882 ill. in b/w (fig. 368), as Winter Harmony.
Sotheby's New York 2005
American Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture. Auction catalogue, May 18, 2005. New York: Sotheby's, 2005, lot 22 ill. in color, as Winter Harmony.
Peters 2005–II
Peters, Lisa N. "John Henry Twachtman." In The Poetic Vision: American Tonalism, by Ralph Sessions et al. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2005, pp. 171 ill. in color, 172 (no. 39), as Barn in Winter, Greenwich, Connecticut.
Peters 2006–III
Peters, Lisa N. "Twachtman and the Equipoise of Impressionism and Tonalism." In John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter", by Lisa N Peters. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Spanierman), pp. 54 ill. in color (detail), 62, as Barn in Winter, Greenwich, Connecticut.
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. 158–59 ill. in color, as Barn in Winter, Greenwich, Connecticut.
Hartley 2008
Hartley, Cody. "True Illusions in Soft Paintings." In Like Breath on Glass: Whistler, Inness, and the Art of Painting Softly, by Marc Simpson. Williamstown, Mass.: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2008. Exhibition catalogue (2008 Clark Art Institute), pp. 81–82, as Barn in Winter, Greenwich, Connecticut.
Simpson 2008
Simpson, Marc. "Painting Softly—An Introduction." by Marc Simpson. In Like Breath on Glass: Whistler, Inness, and the Art of Painting Softly, by Marc Simpson. Williamstown, Mass.: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2008. Exhibition catalogue (2008 Clark Art Institute), p. 18, as Barn in Winter, Greenwich, Connecticut.
Connors 2021
Connors, Thomas. "Connecticut Idyll: How the American Impressionist John Henry Twachtman Made Fairfield County His Own Personal Giverny." Antiques 178 (November 2021), ppp. 95 ill. in color (fig.6), 96, as Barn in Winter, Greenwich, Connecticut.
Peters 2021–II
Peters, Lisa N. Life and Art: The Greenwich Paintings of John Henry Twachtman. Cos Cob, Conn.: Greenwich Historical Society, 2021. Exhibition catalogue (2022 Greenwich Historical Society), pp. 30–31 ill. in color (fig. 20), 104 ill. in color, as Barn in Winter, Greenwich, Connecticut.
Commentary

This winter scene is among Twachtman’s views looking north from his second-floor Greenwich studio to the family barn. Here nuanced light and reflections model the varied density of the snow; the soft edges of the square-shaped barn seem to hover weightlessly in the hazy atmosphere. The scene is one of quietude and stillness, but Twachtman included evidence of habitation in the path leading to the barn, where the artist’s family members have walked but have yet to clear the ground; the carriage tracks at the right, indicating the presence of Round Hill Road; and the curved outline at the left of the root cellar behind the house, where vegetables were stored for winter use. Twachtman never tired of capturing the familiar traces of his family’s presence in the landscape.

This painting was possibly one of the two views of the artist’s barn included in his March 1891 exhibition at Wunderlich Gallery: The Barn—Winter or Snow in Sunlight. The New York Evening Post reported: “The “Barn—Winter,” No. 10, with the pale sunshine falling on the white walls of the barn and the broad expanse of snow that covers the ground, is truthfully observed, and the motive is interpreted with a great deal of refinement and distinction in the color scheme. “Snow in Sunlight,” No. 4, is real and good, and “Snow,” No. 3, is an excellent impression, rendered with truth and simplicity.”[1]

[1] New York Evening Post 1891.

Selected Literature

From Hartley 2008

In Barn in Winter, Greenwich . . . Twachtman manipulates positive and negative space to negate depth and suggest forms softened by winter's low light and dulled contrast. This technique has a further twist in that some unpainted areas suggest recession, the absence of mass. Other thinly painted or unpainted areas of canvas are used to suggest mass and volume, seen notably in the coniferous trees at the ridge crest in the upper left [p. 81].