John Henry Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné
An online catalogue by Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D., in collaboration with the Greenwich Historical Society
Catalogue Entry
OP.979
Sailing
Alternate title: Two Children in a Sailboat
1895
Oil on canvas
25 1/4 x 30 1/4 in. (64.1 x 76.8 cm)
Stamped lower left: Twachtman Sale [1903 estate sale]
Private collection
Provenance
to private collection, 2000;
to present collection, 2001.
Exhibitions
American Art Galleries, New York, Sale of the Work of the Late John H. Twachtman, exhibition and auction, March 19–24, 1903, no. 91, as Sailing.
Literature
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. 487 (catalogue G, no. 518), as Sailing. (Hale concordance).
American Impressionist Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture. Auction catalogue, November 29, 2000. New York: Christie's, 2000, lot 70 ill. in color, as Two Children in a Sailboat.
Commentary
In the group of Sailing in the Mist images that Twachtman created about 1895 in response to the death of his nine-year-old daughter Elsie, this is the only work in which he included two figures, perhaps representing Elsie (born 1886) and her older sister Marjorie (born 1884). In the work, he perhaps intended to suggest that their close bond was one that would continue even after Elsie was no longer present.
Bearing the red stamp of the artist’s 1903 estate sale, this painting was purchased from the sale for $288 by A. B. Payne, as newspaper reports of the sale indicated. It was the only painting bought from the sale by Payne, whose identity is unknown.