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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.519
Autumn Landscape
Alternate titles: Landscape; Nutting
ca. 1880–82
Oil on canvas
12 x 20 in. (30.5 x 50.8 cm)
Location unknown
Provenance
Dr. Martin Dumler, Cincinnati, by 1957;
to Mr. and Mrs. Merrill Gross, by 1966;
(Parke-Bernet, New York, October 22, 1969, lot 86);
to (Kennedy Galleries, New York, 1969);
to (Shannon's, Milford, Connecticut, April 28, 2005, lot 99).
Exhibitions
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. 17, as Autumn Landscape, lent by Merrill Gross, Cincinnati.
1976 University of Iowa
University of Iowa, Iowa City, American Painters: Turn of the Century, September 23–October 31, 1976, as Autumn Landscape.
Literature
Clark 1924
Clark, Eliot. John Twachtman. New York: privately printed, 1924, p. 35, as Nutting.
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 (fig. 115); vol. 2, p. 563 (catalogue A, no. 449), as Nutting. (Hale concordance).
Antiques 1969–I
Antiques 95 (May 1969), p. 710 ill. in b/w, as Autumn Landscape.
Parke-Bernet 1969–II
American Paintings and Sculpture. Auction catalogue, October 22, 1969. New York: Parke-Bernet, 1969, lot 86, as Autumn Landscape.
Kennedy Galleries 2000
American Art: A Fall Selection. New York: Kennedy Galleries, 2000, n.p. ill. in b/w (no. 17), as Autumn Landscape.
Shannon's 2005
Fine American and European Paintings. Auction catalogue, April 28, 2005. New York: Shannon's Fine Art Auctioneers, 2005, lot 99 ill. in color, as Autumn Landscape.
Commentary

A letter on this painting's verso is signed by Cincinnati artist Martin Rettig (1869–1956). It states: “I hereby certify AUTUMN LANDSCAPE is the work of J. H. Twachtman.” Rettig, an artist and composer who received a doctorate in music from the Cincinnati College of Music, may have been the original owner of the painting, but its first recorded owner was Martin G. Dumler (1868–1958), a successful Cincinnati businessman.

In 1924, Clark referred to the painting as Nutting, calling it an example of Twachtman's “active observation and keen descriptive insight,” with its “splendid decorative silhouette.” This title presumes that the women depicted are gathering nuts. The painting is suggestive of the European peasant subject matter that evoked nostalgia for a time in the past. However, the home on the hillside at the left is likely to be a dwelling in the Cincinnati suburbs, and the women depicted may be its occupants, who are enjoying the benefits of living close to nature after leaving behind the claustrophia of a smoky city, crowded in by river and hills.