John Henry Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné
An online catalogue by Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D., in collaboration with the Greenwich Historical Society
Catalogue Entry
P.814
J. Alden Weir's Cottage, Branchville, Connecticut
ca. 1890
Pastel on paper
8 1/2 x 7 in. (21.6 x 17.8 cm)
Signed lower right: Twachtman Inscribed lower left: to little Dorothy / Branchville / Oct 13–90
Provenance
to present collection, 2008.
Exhibitions
Ira Spanierman, New York, John Henry Twachtman, 1853–1902: An Exhibition of Paintings and Pastels, February 3–24, 1968, no. 28, as J. Alden Weir's Cottage, Branchville, Connecticut.
Weir Farm Trust, The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York, A Connecticut Place: Weir Farm—An American Painter's Rural Retreat, April 15–June 4, 2000. (Cummings 2000); (Spencer 2000), p. 111 ill. in b/w, as J. Alden Weir's Cottage, Branchville, Connecticut, lenty by The Brenwasser Collection. Traveled to: The Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut, June 17–September 17, 2000.
Literature
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, pp. 266, 348; vol. 2, p. 807 ill. in b/w (fig. 283), as J. Alden Weir's Cottage, Branchville, Connecticut.
American Paintings. Auction catalogue, March 6, 2008. New York: Sotheby's, 2008, lot 39 ill. in color, as J. Alden Weir's Cottage, Branchville, Connecticut.
American Art. Auction catalogue, June 13, 2019. New York: Swann Galleries, 2019, lot 18 ill. in color, as J. Alden Weir's Cottage, Branchville, Connecticut.
Fall Fine Art Auction. Auction catalogue, October 28, 2021. Milford, Conn.: Shannon's Fine Art Auctioneers, October 28, 2021, lot 75, as J. Alden Weir's Cottage, Branchville, Connecticut.
Commentary
Blended inconspicuously into the landscape, the small building in this pastel is a cottage on Pelham Lane, the road that was at the southern edge of Julian Alden Weir's farm in Branchville. Twachtman dedicated the work on October 13, 1890 to “little Dorothy,” referring to Weir's second child Dorothy, who was born the previous June 18 (she joined her elder sister Caroline, who was born in 1884). Twachtman featured the cottage as well in the pastel Red House, Pelham Lane, Branchville (P.815).