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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A Mountain Gorge, ca. 1891 (P.941). Fig. 1. Twachtman, The Gorge d'Enfer, engraving from Paul van Dyke, "Izard Hunting in the Spanish Pyrenees," Scribner's 10 (October 1891), p. 57.
Fig. 1. Twachtman, The Gorge d'Enfer, engraving from Paul van Dyke, "Izard Hunting in the Spanish Pyrenees," Scribner's 10 (October 1891), p. 57.
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Keywords
P.941
A Mountain Gorge
Alternate title: The Gorge d'Enfer
ca. 1891
Pastel on paper
17 x 11 1/2 in. (43.2 x 29.2 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Louis J. Platt (55.4.2)
Image: © Museum Associates/LACMA
Exhibitions
1893 World's Columbian Exposition
Department of Fine Arts, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, May 1–October 30, 1893, no. 1552, as The Gorge d'Enfer.
1898 Trans-Mississippi
Omaha, Nebraska, Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, June 1–November 1, 1898, no. 757, as The Gorge d'Enfer, lent by Charles Scribner's Sons, Publishers, New York.
Literature
van Dyke 1891–II
Paul van Dyke. "Izard Hunting in the Spanish Pyrenees." Scribner's (New York) 10 (October 1891), p. 57 ill. in b/w, as The Gorge d'Enfer.
Brown 1955
Brown, Richard F. "Recent Gifts of Paintings." Los Angeles County Museum Bulletin of the Art Division, Spring 1955, p. 14, as A Mountain Gorge.
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. 587 (Catalogue A, no. 950), as A Mountain Gorge. (Hale concordance).
Commentary

This drawing was created by Twachtman as an illustration for an 1891 article in Scribner's Magazine titled "Izard Hunting in the Spanish Pyranees," recounting an expedition by the author Paul van Dyke to hunt a rare species of goat-antelope known as the Pyrenean chamois. The work was captioned "Le Gorge d'Enfer" (Throat of Hell). It depicts a chasm in the Pyrenees cut through by the Vézère River. Through its narrow opening, Twachtman depicted a glimpse of mountains. The drawing appears to have been acquired by Scribner's after Twachtman completed the assignment. When it was included in the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, the publisher was not listed as its lender. However, in 1898, the drawing was included in the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition as part of a "Loan Collection of Seventy-five Original Drawings by Charles Scribner's Sons, Publishers, New York."