John Henry Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné
An online catalogue by Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D., in collaboration with the Greenwich Historical Society
Catalogue Entry
OP.976
Sailing in the Mist
Alternate title: Sailing
ca. 1895
Oil on canvas
30 3/16 x 30 1/8 in. (76.7 x 76.5 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman
Exhibitions
M. Knoedler & Co, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Pictures by John H. Twachtman, January 2–11, 1905, no. 12, as Sailing in the Mist.
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 101st Annual Exhibition, January 22–March 3, 1906, no. 1, as Sailing in the Mist.
Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery, New York, First Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists, May 31–September 2, 1906, no. 110, as Sailing in the Mist, lent by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Art Institute of Chicago, Nineteenth Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture by American Artists, October 16–November 29, 1906, no. 300, as Sailing in the Mist, lent by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
National Arts Club, New York, Special Exhibition of Contemporary Art, January 4–25, 1908, no. 4, as Sailing in the Mist.
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Exhibition of Paintings by Ten American Painters, April 11–May 3, 1908, as Sailing in the Mist, not listed in catalogue, but included in the show.
Detroit Institute of Arts, Painting in America: The Story of 450 Years, April 23–June 9, 1957, no. 131, as Sailing in the Mist.
University of New Mexico Art Gallery, Albuquerque, Impressionism in America, February 9–March 14, 1965, no. 82, ill. in b/w, as Sailing in the Mist. Traveled to: M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, March 30–May 5, 1965.
Cincinnati Art Museum, John Henry Twachtman: A Retrospective Exhibition, October 7–November 20, 1966. (Exhibition catalogue: Baskett 1966); (Exhibition catalogue: Boyle 1966–I), no. 42, as Sailing in the Mist, lent by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist, February 26–May 21, 2000. (Peters 1999–I), no. 25, as Sailing in the Mist. Traveled to: Cincinnati Art Museum, June 6–September 5, 1999; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, October 16, 1999–January 2, 2000.
Terra Foundation for American Art, Musée des impressionnismes Giverny, Giverny, France, American Impressionism: A New Vision, 1880–1900, March 28–June 29, 2014. (Bourguignon 2014), as Sailing in the Mist. Traveled to: National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, July 19–October 19, 2014; Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, November 4, 2014–February 1, 2015.
Literature
"A Twachtman Memorial." New York Post, January 4, 1905, p. 7, as Sailing in the Mist.
"Twachtman's Painted Poems." New York Times, January 10, 1905, p. 6, as Sailing in the Mist.
"Exhibitions." American Art News 4 (February 3, 1906), p. 1, as Sailing in the Mist.
Cortissoz, Royal. "The Galleries: The Exhibition at Philadelphia." The Scrip: Notes on Art 2 (March 1906), p. 188, as Sailing in the Mist.
"The National Note in Our Art—A Distinctive American Quality Dominant at the Pennsylvania Academy." Craftsman 10 (March 1906), p. 766, as Sailing in the Mist.
"Sailing in the Mist." Philadelphia Daily News, January 29, 1906, p. 2, as Sailing in the Mist.
"Sailing in the Mist." Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, January 29, 1906, p. 12, as Sailing in the Mist.
L.B.W. "The Pennsylvania Academy." Philadelphia Evening Post, January 22, 1906, as Sailing in the Mist.
"Annual Exhibition at the Academy." Philadelphia Press, January 21, 1906, p. 4, as Sailing in the Mist.
"Painting for Temple Collection." Evening Telegraph (Philadelphia), January 29, 1906, p.11, as Sailing in the Mist.
"Sailing in the Mist Sold." Philadelphia Inquirer, January 28, 1906, section 1, p. 6, as Sailing in the Mist.
"Art and Artists." Public Ledger (Philadelphia), January 28, 1906, as Sailing in the Mist.
Ziegler, Francis J. "New of the Art World." Philadelphia Record, January 28, 1906, p. 4, as Sailing in the Mist.
"The Fine Arts." Boston Evening Transcript, April 15, 1908, p. 23, as Sailing in the Mist.
"From Baltimore to Washington Galleries." Sun (New York), April 23, 1908, p. 6, as Sailing in the Mist.
Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. "Memorial Exhibition of the Works of John H. Twachtman." Albright Academy Notes 8 (April 1913), p. 66, as Sailing in the Mist.
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. 567–68 (catalogue A, no. 523c), as Sailing in the Mist. (Hale concordance).
Hoopes, Donelson F. The American Impressionists. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1972, p. 94 ill. in color (plate 38), as Sailing in the Mist.
Boyle, Richard. American Impressionism. Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1974, pp. 167–69, ill. in b/w, as Sailing in the Mist.
Boyle, Richard J. "American Impressionism." Apollo 100 (August 1974), p. 161 ill. in b/w, as Sailing in the Mist.
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine. Young America: A Selection of Paintings from the Collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1975, pp. 59 ill. in b/w, 74, as Sailing in the Mist.
Gerdts, William H. "The Square Format and Proto-Modernism in American Painting." Arts 50 (June 1976), p. 70 ill. in b/w, as Sailing in the Mist.
Boyle, Richard J. "John H. Twachtman: An Appreciation." American Art & Antiques 1 (November–December 1978), pp. 74–75 ill. in color, 77, as Sailing in the Mist.
Boyle, Richard. John Twachtman. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1979, pp. 17–18, 56–57, 72 ill. in color, as Sailing in the Mist.
Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. New York: Abbeville, 1984, p. 159–60 ill. in color, as Sailing in the Mist.
Mott, Jacolyn A., ed. The American Paintings in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts: An Illustrated Checklist. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in association with the University of Washington, 1989, pp. 152–53 ill. in b/w (no. 1388), as Sailing in the Mist.
Danly, Susan. Light, Air, and Color: American Impressionist Paintings from the Collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1990, p. 76 ill. in color, 77, as Sailing in the Mist.
Gerdts, William H. "The Ten: A Critical Chronology." In Ten American Painters, by William H. Gerdts et al. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 1990. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 42 ill. in b/w, 43, as Sailing in the Mist.
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, pp. 315, 496; vol. 2, p. 857 ill. in b/w (fig. 341), as Sailing in the Mist.
Larkin, Susan G. "'A Regular Rendezvous for Impressionists:' The Cos Cob Art Colony 1882–1920." Ph.D. dissertation, 1996. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microforms, 1996, pp. xvi, 118, 346 ill. in b/w (4.2), as Sailing in the Mist.
May, Stephen. "John Twachtman: An American Impressionist." Antiques and the Arts Weekly (December 3, 1999), p. 1 ill. in b/w, as Sailing in the Mist.
Peters, Lisa N. John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist. Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 1999. Exhibition catalogue (1999 High Museum of Art), pp. 101, 105 ill. in color.
Glueck, Grace. "A Connecticut Colony That Radiated Sunshine." New York Times, March 9, 2001, p. E38 ill. in color (flipped), as Sailing in the Mist.
Landi, Ann. "Bohemians by the Shore." Artnews 100 (May 2001), pp. 168 ill. in color, 169, as Sailing in the Mist.
Larkin, Susan G. The Cos Cob Art Colony: Impressionists on the Connecticut Shore. New York: National Academy of Design in association with Yale University, 2001. Exhibition catalogue (2001 National Academy of Design), pp. 100-101 ill. in color, 102, as Sailing in the Mist.
Larkin, Susan G. "The Cos Cob Art Colony." American Art Review 13 (February 2001), p. 104 ill. in color, as Sailing in the Mist.
Lyman, Laurel. "The Influence of Japonisme on the American Impressionists." Ph.D. dissertation, Graduate School of the City University of New York, 2004. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microforms, 2004, pp. 108–10 ill. in b/w (fig. 80), as Sailing in the Mist.
Bourguignon, Katherine M. American Impressionism: A New Vision 1880–1900. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014. Exhibition catalogue (2014–15 Terra Foundation for American Art), p. 125 ill. in color, as Sailing in the Mist.
Peters, Lisa N. Life and Art: The Greenwich Paintings of John Henry Twachtman. Cos Cob, Conn.: Greenwich Historical Society, 2021. Exhibition catalogue (2022 Greenwich Historical Society), pp. 63–64 ill. in color (fig. 49), 65, as Sailing in the Mist.
Commentary
Depicting a child in a sailboat, this is the best-known of Twachtman’s images of his Sailing in the Mist subject, created in response to the loss of his nine-year-old daughter Elsie from scarlet fever on January 13, 1895. In the painting, the small boat with its single passenger sails into a mist that obscures the distinction between water and sky, the atmospheric light filling the scene enhanced by Twachtman’s forward tilt of the picture plane. The solitary figure, sitting against the stern of the rudderless boat, seems to let the vessel move of its own accord, its white sail shimmering as it catches the wind.
Sailing in the Mist was included in the 1905 memorial exhibition of Twachtman's work at Knoedler galllery. In the following year, it was sent by the agent for Twachtman's estate, Silas S. Dustin, to the annual of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where it was photographed in an installation view (fig. 1). The exhibition opened on February 22. Two days later, John E. D. Trask, the academy's manager, wrote to Dustin, offering $800 net for the painting, and asked Dustin for a telegraph reply, stating: "If this sale is consummated, another is almost certain."[1] The sale was completed, but in spite of this inducement, the academy did not purchase another work by Twachtman until 1923, when it acquired Flowers (OP.989).
In 1908 the work was displayed as a special memorial selection in the exhibition of the Ten American Painters. The Public Ledger of Philadelphia reported that the painting, although not included in the catalogue, was “hung by itself and surrounded by memorial wreaths,” commemorating Twachtman in a painting that itself had a memorial theme.
[1] John E. D. Trask, Phildelphia, to Silas S. Dustin, New York, January 24, 1906, painting file, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.
External Links
- Museum website (pafa.org)