Catalogue Entry
When The Winding Path was included in the 1919 sale of works from the artist's estate, held at Vose Gallery, William Howe Downes called it the “masterwork of the exhibition” and stated: it is “a French scene painted near the little hamlet called Arque [sic] Bataille, in 1885.”[1] This identification seems likely, indicating that the work is a view of one of the river valleys in the countryside near the Normandy town where Twachtman spent the summer of 1884 with his family. A nineteenth-century map reveals the way that the long and wide valleys formed a trident in the land (fig. 1). Whereas in other images, Twachtman's vantage point was toward the hills, here the hills are far in the distance and his emphasis was on the flatness of a valley, in which the trees are well spaced and the few homes present are at a significant distance from each other, linked by a distinct yet narrow path that forms a broad curve through the verdant land.
The painting was purchased from Vose in 1919 by William T. Cresmer (1876–1943), the president of a Chicago publishing firm.
From Downes 1919–I
It is a French scene, painted near the little hamlet called Arques-la-Bataille, in 1885. It is a gray day effect, with the sky hidden by a veil of thin clouds. From the flat fields in the foreground, a winding footpath leads past a stuccoed or plaster-walled barn at the right, towards the village, on a little elevation, in the centre of the distance, behind a group of cedars in the middle distance. At the far left is another group of farm buildings. The horizon discloses a long, softly undulating ridge, with a pleasant succession of easy curves. Beautiful is the only word for the manner in which this peaceful rural scene is represented. The various values of gray in the sky and the atmosphere are full of exquisite quality and yield their charm more and more as the picture is examined and studied. Again, Twachtman's touch, which is peculiar to himself is a feature of this work that is worthy of special mention. It is light, yet firm, and very knowing, very full of a definite purpose, exceedingly apposite; moreover it has the caressing loving, “intimate” quality which gives the work its final charm. Cool as the color scheme is, it does not seem to lack an agreeable hint at underlying warmth and geniality. The drawing of the cedars and birches, especially in the little wood at the right, near the barn, is perfection—as expressive as Corot's or Hiroshige's, the very poetry of form, but reserved and modest to a degree.
From Oliver 1919
One of the finest pictures [at the Vose Galleries] is the work called “Winding Path.” This was painted in France in the year 1885—near Arque [sic] de [sic] Bataille. The moment chosen is on a gray day when the whole world is enveloped in soft atmosphere. In its flat foreground are some bushes and exquisitely drawn bare trees and a narrow well-worn path leads away with an enticing curve past some farm buildings, toward its hamlet in the distance. The luminous sky broods overhead, and the gently rising line of the earth fades into it. That wonderful quality, which seemed almost unique with Twachtman, harmonizes and unites the peaceful country scene.
From Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 1923
Twachtman carried the mysticism of the tonalists over into modern impressionism. “Winding Path,” from the Cresmer Collection, here illustrated, shows Twachtman as a tonalist—absorbed in the spiritual in nature before he limited himself to playing upon a few high pitched color notes in very fragmentary bits of nature. This large, more deliberately pictorial canvas which might be mistaken for a Wyant, affords an interesting contrast with the small square canvases of his later period, examples of which are to be found in the Cresmer Collection and in the Ryerson Collection, as well as in our own Friends of American Art Collection.
From Clark 1924.
The “Winding Path,” which we know only in photograph, painted in 1885 at Arque [sic] la Bataille, is an important canvas. More ingratiating and poetical in theme, it is less typical of the artist's style. Almost panoramic in extent, it introduces a distant perspective uncommon in the artist's composition.