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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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Keywords
OP.1110
Winter Silence
1890s
Oil on canvas
23 x 22 1/2 in. (58.4 x 57.2 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman–
Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Massachusetts, Gift of Clay Bartlett (AC 1955.298)
Image: Petegorsky / Gipe
Provenance
(Montross Galleries, New York);
to Frederic Clay Bartlett, Manchester, Vermont;
to his son Clay Bartlett;
gift through Robert G. McIntyre to present collection, 1955.
Exhibitions
1956 Mount Holyoke College
Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts, French and American Impressionism, October 5–November 4, 1956, no. 50, as Winter Silence.
1970 Hathorn Gallery
Hathorn Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, Some Quietist Painters: A Trend Toward Minimalism in Late Nineteenth-Century American Painting, April 8–29, 1970, no. 26, as Winter Silence.
1980 Hurlbutt Gallery
William Benton Museum, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut and American Impressionism, March 20–May 31, 1980, no. 71, p. 77 ill. in b/w, as Winter Silence.
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. 3, p. 91 ill. in color, as Winter Silence. Traveled to: Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, March 18–May 20, 1990.
Literature
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. 580 (catalogue A, no. 756), as Winter Silence. (Hale concordance).
Spencer 1980
Spencer, Harold. "Reflections on Impressionism: Its Genesis and American Phase." In Connecticut and American Impressionism, by Harold Spencer, Susan G. Larkin, and Jeffrey W. Andersen. Storrs, Conn.: William Benton Museum of Art, 1980. Exhibition catalogue, p. 76 ill. in b/w, as Winter Silence.
Pyne 1989
Pyne, Kathleen A. "John Twachtman and the Therapeutic Landscape." 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), pp. 60 ill. in b/w, 61, as Winter Silence.
May 1990
May, Stephen. "Twachtman at the Wadsworth Atheneum." Art Times (March 1990), p. 9, as Winter Silence.
Perlman 1990
Perlman, Bennard. "National Gallery Exhibit Shows Two Sides of the Same Subject." Baltimore Daily Record, January 17, 1990, p. A32, as Winter Silence.
Rosenbaum 2006
Rosenbaum, Julia B. Visions of Belonging: New England Art and the Making of American Identity. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University, 2006, p. 102, as Winter Silence.
Commentary

Winter Silence is among Twachtman’s images of Hemlock Pool, a widened section of Horseneck Brook edged by rocks. His view from above makes this a flattened abstract design arranged tectonically within the almost square arrangement.

The painting was purchased from Montross Galleries by Frederic Clay Bartlett (1873–1953). A Chicago-born artist who trained in Munich as well as with Whistler in Paris, Bartlett became a noted art collector. On his death in 1953 the painting was inherited by his son Clay, who donated it to its present collection in 1955.