John Henry Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné
An online catalogue by Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D., in collaboration with the Greenwich Historical Society
Catalogue Entry
P.703
Ocean View: Spire and Lighthouse
ca. 1885
Pastel on paper
8 x 18 1/4 in. (20.3 x 46.4 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman [possibly with a double n]
Private collection
Provenance
by descent in the family to present collection.
Literature
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, p. 212; vol. 2, p. 738 ill. in b/w (fig. 207), as Ocean View: Spire and Lighthouse.
Commentary
This is likely to be the pastel Sunlight, which was number 20 in Twachtman’s 1886 exhibition at J. Eastman Chase’s Gallery, Boston. A reason for this identification is that the work depicts the same scene as Moonlight (P.702), which was probably in the show. Twachtman may have intended the two works as counterparts. Viewing the site from the water, he again included pilings in the foreground, but he viewed them on a more direct angle at a point when the water level was higher, probably obscuring the inlet that is visible in Moonlight. On the far shore more detail can be seen, including a red building at the right that is only a soft-edged shape in Moonlight.