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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Keywords
OP.904
Spring Landscape
ca. 1890–91
Oil on panel
15 5/8 x 18 3/4 in. (39.6 x 47.6 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman
Hillstrom Museum of Art, Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota, Gift of the Reverend Richard L. Hillstrom (2012.5.51)
Exhibitions
1957 Gustavus Adolphus College
Gustavus Adolphus College, Saint Peter, Minnesota, 1957, as Spring Landscape.
1957 Walker Art Center
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 1957, as Spring Landscape.
1969 Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, American Art: The Early Moderns, September 1969–August 1970, p. 73 ill. in b/w, as Spring Landscape.
1972 Birger Sandzen Memorial Gallery
Birger Sandzen Memorial Gallery, Lindsborg, Kansas, March 26–April 30, 1972, as Spring Landscape.
1993 Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, American Masters: Selections from the Richard Lewis Hillstrom Collection, April 23–July 3, 1993, as Spring Landscape.
Literature
Jon 1993
Jon, Dennis Michael. American Masters: Selections from the Richard Lewis Hillstrom Collection. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1993. Exhibition catalogue, p. 73 ill. in b/w, as Spring Landscape.
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. 27–28 ill. in color (fig. 18), as Spring Landscape.
Commentary

Twachtman created this view looking toward the back (north facade) of his Greenwich home between 1890 and 1892, as it shows the dwelling before he removed the central chimney on the older section of the home (at the left) and lowered the eaves. The dormer belonging to his studio, seen through the trees at the right, faces north. Just below it is the outline of the grass-covered root cellar built into the hillside that predated the Twachtman family’s occupation of the home. By the time Twachtman created this painting, a garden was in place behind the home, as the horizontal line of its fence parallels the eastern edge of the house. At the left, Round Hill Road, with a tall tree, probably a maple, on the opposite side of the road, forms a diagonal that intersects with the eastern corner of the house roof.

This painting is a counterpart to another work titled Spring Landscape (OP.905), also an oil on panel with the same measurements, that depicts the view from the opposite perspective, looking toward the front of the house. Here the lone tree on the opposite side of Round Hill Road is at the left, whereas in view toward the front of the house, it is at the right. Both works demonstrate a stylistic approach in which Twachtman derived influence from his involvement in pastel in the late 1880s, in which he used a toned ground as part of his palette, harmonizing with it fresh, bright hues, applied with little blending.