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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.920
August Haze (Summer Landscape)
Alternate titles: August Haze; Summer Landscape
ca. 1895–99
Oil on panel
14 1/4 x 22 1/8 in. (36.2 x 56.2 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman [indistinctly] Stamped lower left [1903 estate sale]
Private collection, Texas
Provenance
(American Art Galleries, Twachtman estate sale, March 24, 1903, no. 26);
to Robert Reid, New York;
Mrs. Donald Kellogg;
private collection, Philadelphia;
(Berry-Hill Galleries, New York, by 1983);
to (Christie's, New York, November 30, 1999, lot 10);
to present collection, 1999.
Exhibitions
1903–I American Art Galleries
American Art Galleries, New York, Sale of the Work of the Late John H. Twachtman, exhibition and auction, March 19–24, 1903, no. 26, as August Haze.
Literature
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. 455 (catalogue G, no. 249), as August Haze. (Hale concordance).
Berry-Hill 1983
Berry-Hill Galleries. American Paintings II. New York: Berry-Hill Galleries, 1983, p. 40 ill. in b/w, as August Haze.
Berry-Hill 1994
Berry-Hill Galleries. American Paintings VII. New York: Berry-Hill Galleries, 1994, pp. 188–89 ill. in color, as August Haze.
Christie's, New York 1999–II
Important American Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture. Auction catalogue, November 30, 1999. New York: Christie's, 1999, lot 10 ill. in color, as Summer Landscape.
Commentary

This scene appears to be a view looking east toward the artist's home, which is represented by the small white triangle on the hill in the distance near the center of the canvas. The painting was probably created after Twachtman's final renovation in 1894–95, which included an addition that he built on top of the rocky foundation of the land. Here he used thin washes over a toned support, giving the work a softened Tonalist glow against which the small white shape stands out. Twachtman thus expressed how his perception of the landscape was shaped by his awareness of his own place within it. 

There is a very faint signature on the lower right that has been almost completely rubbed off. It may have been hard to detect during the artist's era because the painting received the red stamp of his 1903 estate sale (left off of signed works). The painting—number 26 in the sale—sold for $140 to Robert Reid, a fellow member of the Ten American Painters and a friend of Twachtman's who, on visits to Greenwich, painted views of his Twachtman's property.[1] Reid was also one of the artist's associates who was on the Exhibition Committee for the sale.

[1] Reid showed a work titled Twachtman’s Valley at Sunset (location unknown) at the Society of American Artists annual in the spring of 1895.