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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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Additional Images
The White Bridge, ca. 1896 (OP.980). Fig. 1. Utagawa Hiroshige, In the KameidoTenjin Shrine Compound, 1856, color woodblock print, 14 1/4 × 9 3/4 in., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Howard Mansfield Collection, purchase, Rogers Fund, 1936 (JP2517).
Fig. 1. Utagawa Hiroshige, In the KameidoTenjin Shrine Compound, 1856, color woodblock print, 14 1/4 × 9 3/4 in., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Howard Mansfield Collection, purchase, Rogers Fund, 1936 (JP2517).
The White Bridge, ca. 1896 (OP.980). Fig. 2. OP.980, The White Bridge, in frame thought to have been designed by Stanford White.
Fig. 2. OP.980, The White Bridge, in frame thought to have been designed by Stanford White.
Keywords
OP.980
The White Bridge
Alternate title: The Bridge
ca. 1896
Oil on canvas
30 1/4 x 30 1/4 in. (76.8 x 76.8 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman–
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Gift of the Martin B. Koon Memorial Collection (14.114)
Provenance
(Silas S. Dustin, New York);
to William T. Evans, by 1907;
to (American Art Association, New York, Evans sale, March 31–April 2, 1913, lot 191);
to (Macbeth);
to Martin B. Koon Memorial Collection, Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts (now Minneapolis Institute of Arts);
gift to present collection, 1914.
Exhibitions
1896–97 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts probably
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Sixty-Sixth Annual Exhibition, December 21, 1896–January 22, 1897, no. 315, as The Bridge.
1897 National Academy of Design probably
National Academy of Design, New York, Seventy-Second Annual Exhibition, April 5–May 15, 1897, no. 380, as The White Bridge.
1901–I Durand-Ruel probably
Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, Paintings and Pastels by John H. Twachtman, March 4–16, 1901, as The White Bridge.
1907–I Lotos Club
Lotos Club, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by the Late John H. Twachtman, January 5–31, 1907, no. 9, as The White Bridge, lent by Mr. Silas S. Dustin.
1908 Wentworth Manor
Wentworth Manor, Montclair, New Jersey, American Paintings: Collection of William T. Evans, November 1908, no. 132, as The White Bridge.
1910 Lotos Club
Lotos Club, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by French and American Luminists, December 17, 1910 and following days, no. 44, as The White Bridge, lent by William T. Evans.
1911 Wentworth Manor
Wentworth Manor, Montclair, New Jersey, American Paintings: Collection of William T. Evans, February 1911, no. 139, as The White Bridge.
1915 Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Inaugural Exhibition, January 7–February 7, 1915, no. 302, as The White Bridge.
1919 Albright Art Gallery
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, New York, Thirteenth Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists, May 24–September 8, 1919, no. 125, as The White Bridge, lent by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
1937 Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland Museum of Art, American Painting From 1860 until Today, June 23–October 4, 1937, no. 200, as The White Bridge.
1937 Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum, New York, Leaders of American Impressionism: Mary Cassatt, Childe Hassam, John H. Twachtman, and J. Alden Weir, October 17–November 28, 1937, no. 62, ill. in b/w (plate IX), as The White Bridge, lent by The Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
1939 Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute
Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, Presenting the Work of John H. Twachtman, American Painter, November 5–28, 1939, no. 3, as The White Bridge.
1966 Cincinnati Art Museum
Cincinnati Art Museum, John Henry Twachtman: A Retrospective Exhibition, October 7–November 20, 1966. (Exhibition catalogue: Baskett 1966); (Exhibition catalogue: Boyle 1966–I), no. 62, as The White Bridge, lent by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
1971 Meredith Long Gallery
Meredith Long Gallery, Houston, Americans at Home and Abroad, 1870-1920, March 26–April 9, 1971, no. 38, as The White Bridge.
1989–II National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., District of Columbia, John Twachtman: Connecticut Landscapes, October 15, 1989–January 28, 1990. (Exhibition catalogue: Chotner 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Pyne 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Peters 1989–I), no. 19, p. 107, as The White Bridge. Traveled to: Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, March 18–May 20, 1990.
1999 High Museum of Art
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist, February 26–May 21, 2000. (Peters 1999–I), no. 30, as The White Bridge. Traveled to: Cincinnati Art Museum, June 6–September 5, 1999; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, October 16, 1999–January 2, 2000.
Literature
New York Times 1897 probably
"The Spring Academy: Striking Features of the Exhibition this Year." New York Times, April 3, 1897, p. BR7, as The White Bridge.
New-York Tribune 1901–II probably
"Art Exhibitions: Paintings by Mr. Twachtman." New-York Tribune, March 6, 1901, p. 6.
American Art Association 1913
Private Collection Formed by the Widely Known Amateur William T. Evans. Auction catalogue, March 3–April 2, 1913. New York: American Art Association, 1913, lot 191 ill. in b/w, as The White Bridge.
New York Times 1913–II
"Clark Pays $24,000 for Two Paintings." New York Times, April 3, 1913, p. 11, as The White Bridge.
Koehler 1914
Koehler, Robert. "The Martin B. Koon Memorial Collection." Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin 3–7 (March–July 1914), pp. 33–34, as The White Bridge.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin 1914
Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin 3 (April 1914), p. 40, as The White Bridge.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts 1917
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts Handbook. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1917, p. 82, as The White Bridge.
Buffalo Fine Arts Academy 1919
Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. "Thirteenth Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists at the Albright Art Gallery." Academy Notes 14 (July–September 1919), pp. 77–78, 80 ill. in b/w, as The White Bridge.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts 1926
Minneapolis Institute of Arts Handbook of Paintings. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1926, p. 80, as The White Bridge.
Tucker 1931
Tucker, Allen. John H. Twachtman. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1931, pp. 30–31 ill. in b/w, as The White Bridge.
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. 1, pp. 232–34 ill. in b/w; vol. 2, p. 543 (catalogue A, no. 89), as The White Bridge. (Hale concordance).
Flexner 1970
Flexner, James Thomas. Nineteenth-Century American Painting. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1970, p. 251 ill. in b/w, as The White Bridge.
Prown 1977
Prown, Jules David. American Painting: From the Colonial Period to the Present. New York: Rizzoli International, 1977, p. 119, ill. in color, as The White Bridge.
Boyle 1979
Boyle, Richard. John Twachtman. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1979, pp. 74–75 ill. in color, as The White Bridge.
Cahill 1985
Cahill, Holger. "Forty Years After: An Anniversary for the American Federation of Arts." American Federation of Arts Newsletter (January 1985), pp. 2, ill. in b/w, 3–8, as The White Bridge.
Museum and Arts—Washington 1989
Museum and Arts—Washington (November–December 1989), p. 3 ill. in color, as The White Bridge.
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. 40, as The White Bridge.
Antiques 1989–II
Antiques 135 (November 1989), p. 987 ill. in color, as The White Bridge.
May 1990
May, Stephen. "Twachtman at the Wadsworth Atheneum." Art Times (March 1990), p. 9, as The White Bridge.
Peters 1991
Peters, Lisa N. American Impressionist Masterpieces. New York: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 1991, pp. 64–65 ill. in color, as The White Bridge.
Peters 1994
Peters, Lisa N. "The Suburban Aesthetic: John Twachtman's White Bridge." Porticus: Journal of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester 17–19 (1994–96), pp. 51–52 ill. in b/w.
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, pp. 388, 409; vol. 2, p. 936 ill. in b/w (fig. 422), as The White Bridge.
Larkin 1996
Larkin, Susan G. "'A Regular Rendezvous for Impressionists:' The Cos Cob Art Colony 1882–1920." Ph.D. dissertation, 1996. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microforms, 1996, pp. xxvii, 232–36, 463 ill. in b/w (8.18), as The White Bridge.
Larkin 1998
Larkin, Susan G. "On Home Ground: John Twachtman and the Familiar Landscape." American Art Journal 29 (1998), pp. 71, 73, 75 ill. in b/w, 76–77, 80, 83, as The White Bridge.
May 1999
May, Stephen. "John Twachtman: An American Impressionist." Antiques and the Arts Weekly (December 3, 1999), p. 69 ill. in b/w, as The White Bridge.
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), pp. 101, 114, 118 ill. in color, 140, as The White Bridge.
Nelson 2006
Nelson, John. "From a Personal Perspective." In John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter", by Lisa N. Peters. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Spanierman), p. 11, as The White Bridge.
Rosenbaum 2006
Rosenbaum, Julia B. Visions of Belonging: New England Art and the Making of American Identity. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University, 2006, p. 104 ill. in b/w, as The White Bridge.
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. iii ill. in color, 85–86 ill. in color (fig. 70), 91, as The White Bridge.
Commentary

With a high degree of certainty, this was the work with the title of The Bridge shown in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) annual, held December 1896–February 1897. A letter Twachtman sent to Harrison S. Morris at PAFA on January 7, 1898 indicates this: “The ‘White Bridge’ sent you this year is not the one you had last year. I built a new bridge and this is a new picture.”[1] The letter reveals that the work shown at PAFA in 1897–98 was a White Bridge scene, probably portraying the first bridge Twachtman built over Horseneck Brook, to the west of his Greenwich home. In a letter to Morris of December 9, 1897, Twachtman was probably referring also to this painting in his remark: “I will send you three or four canvases the first part of next week. I have no frame for one canvas 30 x 30 inches and I want much to send it as it is one my best. I speak of this as you suggested finding a frame in Phil.”[2] The measurements mentioned match this work and it is not surprising that Twachtman would consider it one of his best.

The Bridge, shown at PAFA, must have been the painting sent on to the National Academy of Design annual in April–May as The White Bridge. No reviews have emerged that mention the work shown in Philadelphia, but a New York Times reviewer took notice of the painting shown at the National Academy, including it as among the few “the really great pictures” in the spring exhibition and writing that the “delicate ‘White Bridge’” was “the best tonal landscape in the display [New York Times 1897–I]."

The present painting may have also been The White Bridge, exhibited in Twachtman’s solo exhibition at Durand-Ruel Gallery, New York, in 1901. The New York Tribune observed: “In the large uncatalogued picture of a river crossed by a white bridge, which is seen through the thin foliage of trees in the foreground, the work seems unfinished, but enough is there to proclaim the loveliness and freshness of the subject [New-York Tribune 1901–II].”

This view of the bridge is probably looking northwest up the brook toward Horseneck Falls, to the south of the location depicted in the following year in The White Bridge (OP.981). In the construction of his white bridges over Horseneck Brook, Twachtman did not have a pre-existing structure to work from, as he did in altering his home, and thus he had the freedom to be inventive. In doing so, he appears to have based his designs not on bridges he had seen but mostly on those depicted in Japanese woodblock prints, along with his own elaborations. Here he designed a bridge in the mode of the raised arched bridge represented in Hiroshige’s In the KameidoTenjin Shrine Compound (fig. 1) but its latticework gives it a lighter, more naturelike aspect. A canopy over the bridge’s crossing creates a resting point for the viewer’s eye, just as it would enable those crossing the bridge to pause and enjoy the beauty of their surroundings. Building this bridge in the summer of 1896, Twachtman would have been unaware of the Japanese bridge constructed by Claude Monet at his home in Giverny, France, in 1895. Although Monet created three views of his Japanese bridge then, he did not focus on the subject until 1899, when he created a series of eighteen images of it. These works were not seen in America until after the turn of the century.  

The White Bridge remained in the artist’s estate until 1907, when it was purchased by William T. Evans. It was included in the sale of Evans’s collection in 1913, from which it was acquired by Macbeth Gallery. The painting was purchased for the Martin B. Koon Memorial Collection for the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts (now Minneapolis Institute of Arts) by two daughters of Koon (1841–1912), a noted Minneapolis judge, in 1914.

The painting is in a gilded frame, with elongated, elegant scrollwork, believed to be the work of Stanford White (fig. 2). 

[1] John H. Twachtman to Harrison Morris, January 7, 1898. Morris was secretary/managing director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, from 1892 to 1905.

[2] John H. Twachtman to Harrison Morris, December 9, 1897.

Selected Literature

From Koehler 1914

Another picture of rare quality in this collection is by the late John H. Twachtman, and is entitled “The White Bridge.” The canvas, which measures 30 inches in both height and width, “shows a green landscape in which a narrow river enters from the left foreground, winds partly across the picture, and back towards a low hill, where its course is lost in a profusion of foliage in the central distance. A slender, crooked and feathery tree on the nearer low bank in the foreground is of a light yellowish-green, and a darker, cone-shaped evergreen tree grows near it at the foot of a higher, steep part of the bank. The grass of the entire bank is of a similar pale yellowish-green in the sunshine to the foliage of the slender tree and the other trees which toward the top of the picture obscure the sky. From the high bank a graceful white footbridge of gentle arch crosses the stream, which is filled with gray purplish brown reflections. The bridge is ornamented with an overhead arch, protecting its promenade.