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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 Campanile, Late Afternoon, ca. 1881 (OP.651). Fig. 1. Rio di San Barnabà. with a view of the church of San Barnabà, 2017.
Fig. 1. Rio di San Barnabà. with a view of the church of San Barnabà, 2017.
Related Work
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Keywords
OP.651
The Campanile, Late Afternoon
Alternate title: The Campanile
ca. 1881
Oil on panel
17 x 11 in. (43.2 x 27.9 cm)
Private collection
Provenance
William J. Baer, ca. 1880s;
to William T. Evans, by early 1900s;
to (American Art Association, New York, Evans sale, March 31–April 2, 1913, lot 146);
to Alexander M. Hudnut;
to (Parke-Bernet, New York, Hudnut sale, April 8, 1937, lot 41);
to Isabel Hudnut;
to (Parke-Bernet, New York, January 26, 1938, lot 18);
to J. Rohe;
(Parke-Bernet, New York, October 10, 1940, lot 8);
(Connecticut Gallery, Marlborough, Connecticut, by 1987);
private collection, 1987
to (Sotheby's, New York, November 29, 1990, lot 42);
to present collection, 1990.
Exhibitions
1913 American Art Galleries
American Art Galleries, New York, The Private Collection of American Paintings Formed by the Widely Known Amateur William T. Evans, Esq. of New York, March 31–April 2, 1913, no. 146, as The Campanile, Late Afternoon.
Literature
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 146, as The Campanile, Late Afternoon.
Parke-Bernet 1937
Hudnut sale. Auction catalogue, April 8, 1937. New York: Parke-Bernet, 1937, lot 41, as The Campanile, Late Afternoon.
Parke-Bernet 1938–I
Auction catalogue, January 26, 1938. New York: Parke-Bernet, 1938, lot 18, as The Campanile, Late Afternoon.
Parke-Bernet 1940–II
American, French, Dutch, Flemish, and Other Schools. Auction catalogue, October 10, 1940. New York: Parke-Bernet, 1940, lot 8, as The Campanile, Late Afternoon.
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. 438 (catalogue G, no. 112), as The Campanile, Late Afternoon. (Hale concordance).
Sotheby's New York 1990–II
American Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture. Auction catalogue, November 29, 1990. New York: Sotheby's, November 28, 1990, lot 42 ill. in color, as The Campanile.
Commentary

In this image, Twachtman's view was looking east along the Rio di San Barnabà to the Ponte dei Pugni and the campanile of the church of San Barnabà in Venice (fig. 1). This is the same site he depicted in a drawing, Canal, Venice (D.204), where he stood on the Campo di San Barnabà and included a corner of the church with its campanile at the work's center. Here, portraying this scene from the water or a fondamenta on the right that is not visible in the work, he used a vertical format to draw the viewer's eye across the canal to the campanile, while framing it by buildings on both sides of the waterway.

Lacking the thick pigment and sketchlike method of Twachtman's Munich period art, this painting was probably rendered during his honeymoon, which he concluded in Venice at the end of 1881. His approach is close to that of Whistler in Little Canal, San Barnaba, flesh color and gray, 1881 (private collection), a view of the canal, in which the campanile is not visible.[1] Both Whistler and Twachtman left their foregrounds open, isolating the viewer from the scene and concentrating attention on the distance. The canal was also rendered by Sargent, in a watercolor, Venetian Canal, 1913, in a broader view in which the campanile is prominent.   

Twachtman may have given this painting to his childhood friend, Cincinnati artist William J. Baer (1860–1941), who owned it in the 1880s. In the first decade of the twentieth century, Baer sold it to William T. Evans, who was then collecting primarily Tonalist paintings. It was included with its current title in the sale of Evans's collection at the American Art Association in New York in 1913.

[1] The work and its site are illustrated in Alistair Grieve, Whistler's Venice (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University, 2000), pp. 44–45. 

Selected Literature

From American Art Association 1913

A richly colored painting of deep, sonorous tones, colorful buildings rising on each side of a narrow canal, that on the right mounting above the picture, the varied pile on the left outlining its roofs against a gray sky with brownish-pink touches. At the far end of the canal the red Campanile raises its point skyward, its wavering reflection mingling in the mottled water of the canal with those of the polychrome bordering buildings.