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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.1409
Boats at Anchor
Alternate title: Grey Day
ca. 1900
Oil on panel
7 1/2 x 9 in. (19 x 22.9 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman–
Private collection, Brookline, Massachusetts, Courtesy Mark L. Brock, Brock & Co., Concord, Massachusetts
Image: Roz Akin
Provenance
(American Art Galleries, New York, Twachtman estate sale, March 24, 1903, no. 55;
to Benjamin Ames Kimball;
(Stephen Score, Essex, Massachusetts);
to private collection, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, 1979;
to (Spanierman, 2005);
to (Brock & Co., Carlisle, Massachusetts, 2007);
to private collection, 2008.
Exhibitions
1901 Art Institute of Chicago possibly
Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of the Works of John H. Twachtman, January 8–27, 1901, no. 34, as Grey Day.
1901–I Cincinnati Art Museum possibly
Cincinnati Art Museum, Exhibition of Sixty Paintings by Mr. John H. Twachtman, Formerly Resident in Cincinnati, April 12–May 16, 1901, no. 18, as Grey Day.
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. 55, as Boats at Anchor.
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. 61, as Boats at Anchor. Traveled to: Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, July 13–October 29, 2006.
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. 433 (catalogue G, no. 64b), as Boats at Anchor. (Hale concordance).
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. 200–201 ill. in color, as Boats at Anchor.
Commentary

Painted on one of the cigar boxtops that Twachtman often used for plein-air work in Gloucester (D.1404), Boats at Anchor depicts a view from Banner Hill in East Gloucester, looking north across the Inner Harbor toward the city of Gloucester. In the near left is the broad gable of the J. F. Wonson fish building that Twachtman featured in many other paintings that he created in Gloucester in the summer of 1900 (see Gloucester Harbor, OP.1403). The more steeply pitched roof of an adjacent building blocks its left edge. In the upper right, a tip of the Rocky Neck peninsula projects into the scene.

This painting is featured in one of the charcoal sketches that Twachtman sent to his son Alden representing the work he had completed in Gloucester in the summer of 1900. He noted on the drawing's verso: “Grey day, very cool in color.” Given this, it is probable that this was the painting shown in Twachtman’s 1901 exhibitions in Chicago and Cincinnati as Grey Day. However, as this title was one Twachtman used often over the course of his career, this cannot be confirmed.   

This painting was included in the artist’s 1903 estate sale with its current title, from which it was purchased by Benjamin Kimball (1833–1920) for $70. A label on the back of the work—perhaps placed there at the time of the sale—identifies Kimball as the buyer, gives the title and number of the work in the estate sale, and describes the scene as a view of Gloucester Harbor. Kimball was a leading figure in the railroad industry in New Hampshire, serving as president of the Concord and Montreal Railroad, beginning in 1895. As noted in a memorial article of 1920, he “was one of the first to comprehend the magnitude of the possible development of New Hampshire as a state of summer resorts and summer homes, and for that purpose, as well as for the benefit of the farms and factories of the state, he brought about the construction of various branch lines and extensions without which the Granite State could hardly have won and merited its title of the Switzerland of America.”[1]

[1]  See “Benjamin A. Kimball,” Granite Monthly (September 1920), pp. 343–54.  The quote appears on page 347.