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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Additional Images
Cincinnati Landscape, 1880 (OP.501). Fig. 1. "Mount Auburn Inclined Plane," from D. J. Kenny, Illustrated Cincinnati: A Pictorial Hand-Book of the Queen City (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1875), p. 298.
Fig. 1. "Mount Auburn Inclined Plane," from D. J. Kenny, Illustrated Cincinnati: A Pictorial Hand-Book of the Queen City (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1875), p. 298.
Related Work
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Keywords
OP.501
Cincinnati Landscape
1880
Oil on canvas
20 1/2 x 24 in. (52.1 x 61 cm)
Signed, dated, and inscribed lower left: J. H. Twachtman / Cin. 1880
Private collection
Provenance
William Woodin (Secretary of the Treasury);
private collection, Beverly Hills, California;
(Schweitzer Gallery, New York);
to Albert Duveen, by 1964;
by descent in the Duveen family;
to the father of the current owner;
by descent to present collection, 1986.
Literature
Art Journal 1963–64
Art Journal 23 (Winter 1963–64), p. 163 ill. in ill. in b/w, as Cincinnati Landscape.
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. 155; vol. 2, p. 683 ill. in b/w (fig. 142), as Cincinnati Landscape.
Peters 1999–I
Peters, Lisa N. John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist. Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 1999. Exhibition catalogue (1999 High Museum of Art), p. 54 ill. in b/w, as Cincinnati Landscape.
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. 45 ill. in color (fig. 42), as Cincinnati Landscape.
Commentary

In this painting,—inscribed and dated “Cin. 1880”—Twachtman derived his subject matter from Cincinnati's environs at the time they were being converted to suburbs. Constructed in the city's hills between 1872 and 1876 as the result of the construction of several rail inclines (fig. 1) were many homes of middle-class businessmen, who moved from the heavily polluted city in the Ohio River Valley to areas that were natural, uncongested, and healthier for their families.[1]  

The basis for this painting could have been the etching, Cincinnati Landscape (E.500), which depicts the same site. In the etching, which is not in reverse, Twachtman was more succinct. He treated the scene with just enough detail to indicate the elevation rise of the hills while emphasizing the way that the home at the hillcrest blended into the trees. In the painting, the dwelling with its red roof and the figure in a red skirt at the left stand out prominently, revealing the cultivation that was underway. However, the hills still seem too steep to be hospitable to settlement.

This painting's first-known owner was William H. Woodin (1868–1934), Secretary of the Treasury under Franklin D. Roosevelt. Later the painting was owned by Albert Duveen (1892–1965), the noted art collector, critic, and art dealer.

[1] Sources on this subject include Richard M. Wagner and and Roy J. Wright, Cincinnati Streetcars: No. 2, The Inclines (Cincinnati: Wagner Car Company, 1968) and  Daniel Hurley, Cincinnati: The Queen City (Cincinnati Historical Society, 1982).