Catalogue Entry
Dated 1881, this is one of Twachtman's most carefully rendered and elaborate extant watercolors. A view of Venice, the work depicts a view toward San Giorgio Maggiore from the Riva or the Punta della Dogana (the Custom's House), with the Church of the Redentore on the Giudecca in the middleground and San Giorgio Maggiore on its own island in the background. One of the two lighthouses on the marina at Sn Giorgio Island can be seen on the left.
This work was exhibited at the American Water Color Society in March of 1882 as San Giorgio, Venice, and listed with a price of $50. Describing the five works by Twachtman in the exhibition, Clarence Cook stated in the Art Amateur: "Here is the power to seize the essentials of a scene, and here is independence, not only of others, but of one’s self."[1]
The work's first-known owner was the Scottish artist James Smith Inglis (1852–1907), the manager of Cottier and Company, who may have purchased it from the 1882 exhibition. The work was included in the sale of art from Inglis’s collection in 1910, from which it was acquired by the New York philanthropist Adolph Lewisohn, who also owned Venice (OP.208).
[1] Cook 1882.
From Peters 2006
[The] image conveys the essence of Venice, offsetting the roseate tones of the buildings against the sparkling blue surface of the water. These are exactly the colors that novelist Henry James found resonant in Venice while sojourning in the city in 1881, a time when he lived in an apartment on the Riva that overlooked San Giorgio. Of this view, he remarked, “you see a little of everything Venetian.” His account of Venice from this visit was published in Century Magazine in November of 1882 along with illustrations by Blum, among other artists. James wrote: "Straight across, before my windows, rose the great pink mass of San Giorgio Maggiore, which has for an ugly Palladian church a success beyond all reason. I know not whether it is because San Giorgio is so grandly conspicuous, with a great deal of worn faded-looking brickwork; but for many persons the whole place has a suffusion of rosiness. Asked what may be the leading colour in the Venetian concert, we should inveterately say Pink . . . . It is a faint, shimmering, airy, watery pink; the bright sea-light seems flush with it and the pale whitish-green of the lagoon and canal to drink it."[1]
Although there is no record that Twachtman and James were acquainted, it seems possible that they met and shared experiences of Venice.
[1] Henry James, “Venice,” Century Magazine 25 (November 1882), p. 12.