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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.952
Winter Landscape
Early 1890s
Oil on canvas
21 x 29 1/2 in. (53.3 x 74.9 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman
Private collection
Provenance
(Frank K. M. Rehn Gallery, New York);
to J. K. Newman, 1925;
(American Art Association / Anderson Galleries, Inc., New York, Newman sale, December 6, 1935, lot 17);
Michael Taradash, New York;
to (Spanierman, by 1968);
to private collection, 1968;
by descent in the family.
Exhibitions
1968 Spanierman
Ira Spanierman, New York, John Henry Twachtman, 1853–1902: An Exhibition of Paintings and Pastels, February 3–24, 1968, no. 19, as Winter Landscape.
2006 Spanierman
Spanierman Gallery, New York, John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter," May 4–June 24, 2006. (Nelson 2006); (Parkes 2006); (Peters 2006–I); (Peters 2006–II); (Peters 2006–III); (Peters 2006–IV), no. 41, as Winter Landscape, shown only in New York. Traveled to: Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, July 13–October 29, 2006.
Literature
American Art Association—Anderson Galleries 1935–II
The J. K. Newman Collection of Important Paintings by American and French XIX–XX Century Artists. Auction catalogue, December 6, 1935. New York: American Art Association—Anderson Galleries, 1935, lot 17 ill. in b/w, as Winter Landscape.
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. 579 (catalogue A, no. 743), as Winter Landscape. (Hale concordance).
Peters 2006–III
Peters, Lisa N. "Twachtman and the Equipoise of Impressionism and Tonalism." In John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter", by Lisa N Peters. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Spanierman), p. 62, as Winter Landscape.
Peters 2006–IV
Peters, Lisa N. "Catalogue." In John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter", by Lisa N. Peters. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Spanierman), pp. 160–61 ill. in color, as Winter Landscape.
Commentary

Although Twachtman’s images of his barn seem similar on first glance, many differences become apparent on close observation. Here the square-shaped barn with its high-pitched roof is firmly outlined and seems stable and readily approachable, by contrast with views where it appears more ethereal and distant, such as Barn in Winter (OP.950). When Twachtman exhibited two of his barns in winter in his March 1891 Wunderlich exhibition, a critic for the Art Amateur compared them “for poetic feeling” with John Greenleaf Whittier’s 1866 poem “Snow-Bound.”[1] This painting, in which the peach-red barn offers a stable, restful presence may have been one of the works on view, evoking the idea, expressed by Whittier in his poem, of home as a place of sanctuary against a harsh world. Whittier’s inspiration in turn came from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1835 poem “The Snow Storm,” which could describe this painting as well:

Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air
Hides hill and woods, the river, and the heaven
And veils the farmhouse at the garden’s end.

[1] Art Amateur 1891.