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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.922
Autumn Afternoon
Alternate titles: The Artist's House; The Artist's House throu; Twachtman's Home
ca. 1890–92
Oil on canvas
20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman
Private collection, Washington, D.C.
Provenance
(American Art Galleries, New York, December 6–7, 1900, lot 162);
H. Wood Sullivan, Brooklyn;
to (American Art Association, New York, Sullivan sale, April 3, 1903, lot 48);
to A. A. Healy;
John F. Braun, Philadelphia, as of 1919);
to (Vose, 1919);
to (Macbeth, 1920);
to George Horace Lorimer, New York);
bequest to Cary William Bok, Camden, Maine;
to Robert C. Vose Jr., Boston, 1969;
to private collection, 1992;
to (Christie’s, New York, May 26, 1999, lot 60, as Artist's House through the Trees);
to present collection, 1999.
Exhibitions
1919–II Vose
R. C. & N. M. Vose, Boston, Exhibition of Paintings by J. H. Twachtman, November 10–22, 1919, no. 9, as Autumn Afternoon.
1980 Hurlbutt Gallery
William Benton Museum, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut and American Impressionism, March 20–May 31, 1980, no. 68, as Twachtman's Home.
1987 Colby College Museum of Art
Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, Friends Collect: Selections from Private Collections of Friends of Art at Colby, August 5–October 18, 1987, no. 100, as The Artist's House.
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. 36, as Autumn Afternoon. Traveled to: Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, July 13–October 29, 2006.
Literature
American Art Galleries 1900
Nearly Two Hundred Modern Oil Paintings, Water Colors, and Drawings by American and Foreign Artists. Auction catalogue, December 6–7, 1900. New York: American Art Galleries, 1900, lot 162, as Autumn Afternoon.
American Art Association 1903
Modern Paintings Principally by American Artists Collected by the Late H. Wood Sullivan, Brooklyn. Auction catalogue, April 3, 1903. New York: American Art Association, 1903, lot 48, as Autumn Afternoon.
New York Times 1903–IV
"Wood–Sullivan Pictures." New York Times, April 1, 1903, p. 8, as Autumn Afternoon.
New York Times 1903–V
"Pictures at Auction: The H. W. Sullivan Collection of One Hundred Canvases Sold for $25,271." New York Times, April 4, 1903, p. 8, as Autumn Afternoon.
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. 428 (catalogue G, no. 21), as Autumn Afternoon. (Hale concordance).
Christie's, New York 1999–I
Important American Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture. Auction catalogue, May 26, 1999. New York: Christie's, 1999, lot 60 ill. in color, as The Artist's House throu.
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. 150–51 ill. in color, as Autumn Afternoon.
Commentary

In Autumn Afternoon, Twachtman depicted a view of the front of his Greenwich home, blended into a scene of vibrant autumnal foliage. The painting shows the house before Twachtman extended it farther to the west in about 1894–95. On the left is the western end of the house rising upward from the slope of the land, with a chimney at the center of the roof's gable. Through the trees, it is possible to detect the presence of the dormer in the section of the house that Twachtman built at the time of his move to the home in the winter of 1890. 

This painting was sold with its current title during the artist’s lifetime, when it was included in an auction in 1900 at the American Art Galleries, New York (the catalogue provided its measurements accurately as 20 by 16 inches). The painting’s purchaser was the Brooklyn leather merchant H. Wood Sullivan (1850–1903). Three years later, the work was included in the auction of works from Sullivan’s estate. Reviewing the Sullivan estate sale, the New York Times stated that the work “appears to be a view of [the artist’s] house at Greenwich, Conn., seen through the rich foliage of Autumn from the front, with one gable end in the sunlight.”[1] As published reports of the sale indicate, the painting was purchased for $170 by A. A. Healy, who also bought works by Childe Hassam and J. Francis Murphy.[2]

By 1919 the painting belonged to the noted Philadelphia manufacturer, concert singer, and art collector John F. Braun (1866/67–1939).[3] In that year it was at Vose Galleries, where it was put into a Hermann Dudley Murphy frame, bearing Murphy's inscribed monogram and dated, 1919. The painting was shown in Vose's Twachtman exhibition, held in February 1919. Shortly thereafter the painting was sold through Macbeth Gallery, to George Horace Lorimer (1867–1937), the dynamic editor in chief of the Saturday Evening Post, who owned it until 1937, when it went by Lorimer's bequest to Cary William Bok (1905–1970), the grandson of Cyrus Curtis, who had hired Lorimer and owned the publishing company that produced Saturday Evening Post.[4] Perhaps aware of Vose Galleries' earlier ownership of the painting, Bok returned it to Robert C. Vose Jr. for his personal collection in 1969. It was in the Vose collection until 1992.

[1] New York Times 1903–III.

[2] The three articles that appeared on this sale are listed above, in literature. Works by Ralph Blakelock, Bruce Crane, Childe Hassam, George Inness, J. Francis Murphy, Henry Ward Ranger, and Theodore Robinson represented the American works in the sale.

[3] See “John F. Braun Dead: A Patron of Arts, 72,” New York Times, November 19, 1972, p. 39 and “John F. Braun, “Why Nationalism in Art?” American Magazine of Art 20 (October 1929), pp. 569–70.

[4] Lorimer was made director of the Curtis Publishing Company in 1903 when Bok was its senior vice president.