Catalogue Entry
- Periods
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Depicting a hotel and saloon owned by the artist's uncle and namesake (1833–1880), The Loyal Hotel is undated, but was probably rendered about 1871, when Twachtman was said by his family to have lived at the hotel under his uncle's aegis. The establishment first appeared in the Cincinnati City Directory in 1868, when it was listed as a saloon, located at Smith and Second Streets, with “John Twachtman” as its owner. By 1870, it was included in the directory as a saloon and boarding house; the 1871 and 1872 directories listed: “Twachtman, John, Proprietor, Loyal Hotel.” Active in the anti-temperance movement in Cincinnati (according to articles in the Cincinnati Enquirer in 1872 and 1874), the elder John Twachtman was still operating the Loyal Hotel in 1877, as the city directory of that year indicates.
The hotel's address reveals that it was close to the banks of the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati, near where the city's gasworks and the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad depot were situated. This can be seen in a map of Cincinnati published in 1869. In the painting, the buildings are bracketed by a smokestack on the left, from one of Cincinnati's many factories, and a fire tower on the right. As signage reveals, the buildings featured were home to several businesses. One was a cabinet maker, which Twachtman may have included for personal reasons: his father's main profession was cabinetry. The center building housed the Loyal Hotel; it is identified by the sign on the wall of the building to its right. Signs on either side of its corner entryway read: “J. Twachtman. Beer Saloon.”
In the work, Twachtman captured a sense of ongoing daily life in his hometown. Standing in front of the establishment are a horse and wagon, in which a driver awaits for a passenger. A few other figures are present, one in the hotel's entryway and others at the curb and strolling along the sidewalk at the left.
The Loyal Hotel may have been Twachtman's first serious painting effort. In it, he created a balanced arrangement, carefully rendered its architectural structures, and achieved convincing spatial depth. At the same time, he demonstrated the commitment to which he would adhere throughout his career, of deriving his subject matter from his familiar and immediate context. The painting belonged initially to the family of Twachtman's cousin, Louis C. Twachtman (1863–1933) and was passed down through his descendants to the present.
From Hale 1957
One wonders how The Loyal Hotel impressed Duveneck. Painted early in Twachtman's studenthood, its perspective is that of an untrained but observant young painter whose minor errors are less obtrusive than would have been the self-conscious accuracy of the student just initiated into the mechanics of horizon and vanishing points. We may be sure that he did not miss the two horses in the middle ground, drawn a little naively but with an unconscious sureness for proportion and attitude [pp. 11, 14].
[The Loyal Hotel] is apparently an attempt on the part of a student to paint a picture of his uncle's tavern. It is worth noting that the colors are the same subdued ones that Twachtman was to prefer, in varying degrees, throughout his career. The drawing appears to be that of a young painter, inexperienced, but with enough visual perception to overcome a lack of training in the fine points of perspective. If the lines of the two buildings that constituted his uncle's establishment are not quite mechanically correct we may be sure that such small errors did not detract from the family's appreciation of the picture. The lettering of the signs on the hotel and the furniture factory behind it is so carefully done, considering its small scale, that it might lead one to believe the painting to be the work of a “primitive,” until he noticed the indications of drawing skill displayed in the attitudes and proportions of the two horses in the middle ground [pp. 163–165].