John Henry Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné
An online catalogue by Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D., in collaboration with the Greenwich Historical Society
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Catalogue Entry

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Keywords
OP.1401
Gloucester Schooner
Alternate title: Reflecting
ca. 1900
Oil on canvas
30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm)
Private collection
Image: Roz Akin
Exhibitions
1901 Art Institute of Chicago probably
Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of the Works of John H. Twachtman, January 8–27, 1901, no. 9, as Reflecting.
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. 59, as Gloucester Schooner. Traveled to: Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, July 13–October 29, 2006.
Literature
Chicago Times Herald 1900 probably
"Exhibitions of the Week." Chicago Times Herald (December 30, 1900), p. 7, as Reflecting.
Chicago Journal 1901–II probably
E.A.F. "Art and Artists: Great Success of the Loan Exhibit at the Institute." Chicago Journal, January 12, 1901, p. 3, as Reflecting.
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. 196–97 ill. in color, as Gloucester Schooner.
Commentary

This image of a three-masted schooner in a harbor in Gloucester is not depicted in the twenty-four charcoal sketches that Twachtman sent to his son Alden in the fall of 1900 (at a time when Alden was recovering from an injury in Bemis, Maine). In the sketches, Twachtman featured works he created in the Cape Ann town in the summer of 1900. However, this painting was probably a product of that summer due to its similarities in subject and design to Bark and Schooner (OP.1400) and Drying Sails (OP.1402), both of which are featured in the drawings.

In fact, it is likely to be the painting shown as Reflecting, in Twachtman's January 1901 exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago. A critic for the Chicago Times Herald described Reflecting as an image of a boat at a wharf "with sails set . . . blue heavens swept with fleecy clouds casting mottled shadows in the water's surface, the pink-red warehouses in the background furnishing delicious notes of color." The Chicago Journal critic stated that the painting, "done on the water" was "as entrancing in color as any Venice scene ever painted—if seen at the distance of across the room."

This painting belonged to the artist's son Quentin and remains in the collection of one of his descendants.