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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
Dredging in the Harbor, ca. 1879 (OP.308). Fig. 1. Twachtman, Dredging in New York Harbor, wood engraving by "Porin," in Harper's Weekly, 26 (June 10, 1882), p. 365.
Fig. 1. Twachtman, Dredging in New York Harbor, wood engraving by "Porin," in Harper's Weekly, 26 (June 10, 1882), p. 365.
Keywords
OP.308
Dredging in the Harbor
Alternate titles: Dredging in the East River; Dredging the Harbor
ca. 1879
Oil on canvas
12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman
New-York Historical Society, Gift of the Elie and Sarah Hirschfeld Collection, Scenes of New York City (2020.35.4)
Provenance
(Kleeman Galleries, New York, ca. 1920s);
Chester J. Robertson, Pelham Manor, New York;
by descent in the family, ca. 1927;
to (Hirschl & Adler, 1982);
to (Christie's, New York, May 29, 1987, lot 117, as Dredging in the East River);
to Mr. and Mrs. Elie Hirschfeld, 1987;
gift to present collection, 2020.
Exhibitions
1983 Museum of the Borough of Brooklyn
Museum of the Borough of Brooklyn, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York, "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"—The River and Bridge, April 12–May 10, 1983, as Dredging in the East River.
1994 Memorial Art Gallery
Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, New York, Impressionist New York, January 28–March 26, 1995, ill. in color (detail), as Dredging in the East River. Traveled to: Montgomery Museum of Art, Alabama, November 26, 1994–January 8, 1995; Equitable Gallery, New York, May 13–July 15, 1996.
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. 7, as Dredging in the Harbor. Traveled to: Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, July 13–October 29, 2006.
Literature
Harper's Weekly 1882
"Dredging in New York Harbor." Harper's Weekly 26 (June 10, 1882), p. 356 ill. in b/w in engraving by Porin, as Dredging in the Harbor.
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. 2, p. 547 (catalogue A, no. 149), as Dredging in the East River. (Hale concordance).
Grafton 1977
Grafton, John. New York in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Dover, 1977, p. 242 ill. in b/w in wood engraving from Harper's Weekly, 1882, as Dredging in the Harbor.
Christie's, New York 1987–I
Important American Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture of the 18th, 19th, and 20th Centuries. Auction catalogue, May 29, 1987. New York: Christie's, 1987, lot 117 ill. in color, as Dredging in the East River.
Hiesinger 1991
Hiesinger, Ulrich. Impressionism in America: The Ten American Painters. Munich: Prestel, 1991, p. 75 ill. in b/w, as Dredging in the East River.
Gerdts 1994
Gerdts, William H. Impressionist New York. New York: Abbeville, 1994, pp. 150–51 ill. in b/w, as Dredging in the East River.
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. 84–85; vol. 2, p. 623 ill. in b/w (fig. 68), as Dredging in the East River.
Brody 1999
Brody, David. "Review of John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist." College Art Association Reviews (caa.reviews) 10.3202/caa.reviews.1999.122 (1999), as Dredging the Harbor.
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. 35 ill. in b/w, 36, 40, as Dredging in the East River.
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. 39, as Dredging in the Harbor.
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. 92–93 ill. in color, as Dredging in the Harbor.
Commentary

In the wood engraving reproducing this painting in Harper's Weekly in June 1882, the caption reads “Dredging in New York Harbor” (fig. 1). The article it accompanied described a construction project to deepen New York's harbor to facilitate large ships. 

The article's unidentified author focused on “a battered old man with a grizzly beard,” a treasure hunter, who “sat at the edge of a dredging scow,” his legs dangling over the edge and smoking “a worn cob pipe with great gravity and satisfaction as he kicked his heels in the sunshine and talked with a drawl.” Instead of illustrating what the author described, Twachtman featured the dredge itself, with its scow arm lifting mud and debris from the floor of the river and pouring smoke into the air, while a tiny figure mans the dredge from its deck. Indicating the vessel's name, "America" in white paint across its crowbar, Twachtman related the dredge's energy and the progress it heralded to the character of the nation itself. 

The painting was known as Dredging in the East River when it was at Kleeman Galleries in New York, in the 1920s. Dredging occurred in the East River especially in 1876, when the United States Army Corps of Engineers blasted away Hallert's Point Reef in the Hell's Gate section of the river.[1] The Harper's Weekly article itself states: “This here dredge that you’re standing on is the one that lifted a twenty-four ton rock out of the bed at Hell’s Gate. It was the biggest rock ever handled.” However, it is unclear whether Twachtman's image is meant to depict the East River or a generalized rendering of dredging.

[1] Entry on the painting on the website of the New-York Historical Society.