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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.1003
The Brook, Greenwich, Connecticut
Alternate title: Snow Scene
1890s
Oil on canvas
25 1/8 x 34 3/4 in. (63.8 x 88.3 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman–
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., Gift of John Gellatly (1929.6.144)
Provenance
Frederic Bonner, New York;
to (American Art Association, New York, Bonner Sale, January 24, 1912, lot 38);
to John Gellatly;
gift to present collection, 1929.
Exhibitions
1966 Cincinnati Art Museum
Cincinnati Art Museum, John Henry Twachtman: A Retrospective Exhibition, October 7–November 20, 1966. (Exhibition catalogue: Baskett 1966); (Exhibition catalogue: Boyle 1966–I), no. 51, as Snow Scene, lent by the National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
1970 Hathorn Gallery
Hathorn Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, Some Quietist Painters: A Trend Toward Minimalism in Late Nineteenth-Century American Painting, April 8–29, 1970, no. 21, p. 29 ill. in b/w, as The Brook, Greenwich, Connecticut.
1989–II National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., District of Columbia, John Twachtman: Connecticut Landscapes, October 15, 1989–January 28, 1990. (Exhibition catalogue: Chotner 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Pyne 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Peters 1989–I), no. 10, p. 98 ill. in color, as The Brook, Greenwich, Connecticut. Traveled to: Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, March 18–May 20, 1990.
Literature
American Art Association 1912–I
Important Paintings Belonging to the Estates of the Late George Crocker, Alice Newcomb, Emily H. Moir, and Frederic Bonner. Auction catalogue, January 24, 1912. New York: American Art Association, 1912, lot 38 ill. in b/w, as The Brook, Greenwich, Connecticut.
Levy 1913
Levy, Florence N., ed. American Art Annual 10 (1913), p. 67, as The Brook, Greenwich, Connecticut.
Smithsonian Institution 1933
Smithsonian Institution. Catalogue of American and European Paintings in the Gellatly Collection. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1933, p. 18, as The Brook, Greenwich, Connecticut.
Smithsonian Institution 1954
Smithsonian Institution. Catalogue of American and European Paintings in the Gellatly Collection. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1954, p. 16, as The Brook, Greenwich, Connecticut.
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. 544 (catalogue A, no. 103), as The Brook, Greenwich, Connecticut. (Hale concordance).
National Museum of American Art 1983
National Museum of American Art. Descriptive Catalogue of Painting and Sculpture in the National Museum of American Art. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1983, p. 196, as The Brook, Greenwich, Connecticut.
Peters 1989–I
Peters, Lisa N. "Twachtman's Greenwich Paintings: Context and Chronology." In John Twachtman: Connecticut Landscapes, by Deborah Chotner, Lisa N. Peters, and Kathleen A. Pyne. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1989. Exhibition catalogue (1989–II National Gallery of Art), p. 31, 98 ill. in color, as The Brook, Greenwich, Connecticut.
Peters 1995
Peters, Lisa N. "John Twachtman (1853–1902) and the American Scene in the Late Nineteenth Century: The Frontier within the Terrain of the Familiar." 2 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, City University of New York, 1995. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International, 1996, vol. 1, p. 351; vol. 2, p. 886 ill. in b/w (fig. 372), as The Brook, Greenwich, Connecticut.
Commentary

In this view of Horseneck Brook, northwest of the artist’s Greenwich home, the brook forms a sinuous pattern against a ground still covered in a thick, encrusted snow. In choosing the raised horizon line, Twachtman drew together the foreground and the distance into an allover luminous effect.

The first owner of this painting was Frederic Bonner (1856–1911), who was the manager in chief of the New York Ledger, from 1887 to 1901, when the paper was sold.[1]  He was a member of the Lotos Club and of the art committee of the Union League Club. 

[1] “Frederic Bonner Dead: Youngest Son of Late Robert Bonner and Ex-Editor in Chief of Ledger,” New York Times, January 4, 1911, p. 9.

Selected Literature

From American Art Association 1912

Down a ravine between low hills comes a brook, its upper courses not seen but marked by trees along the banks. The stream emerges into view in the middle distance at the left, whence it comes bubbling in lively force, separating presently into two arms, one stretching across the picture to the right and the two uniting again and forming with the island thus made the foreground of the composition. The trees of the brook sides, extending back into the narrow valley of the middle distance, are all but bare of leaves, the few clinging to occasional branches carrying still the dull, rusty colors of late fall, and the hillsides and valley are covered with a light snow. Up the valley in the distance a few heavier trees are clustered, and on the right one of the evergreens adds its touch of color halfway up the bank. The sky is a cold blue, with low-hanging white clouds. The painting is boldly and broadly done in the artist’s most characteristic manner—a careful study of nearly related values.