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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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Additional Images
Old Holley House, Cos Cob, ca. 1901 (OP.1508). Fig. 1. From Twachtman, Cos Cob, Connecticut, to his son, J. Alden Twachtman, ca. March 15, 1901, private collection.
Fig. 1. From Twachtman, Cos Cob, Connecticut, to his son, J. Alden Twachtman, ca. March 15, 1901, private collection.
Old Holley House, Cos Cob, ca. 1901 (OP.1508). Fig. 2. Holley House, Cos Cob, rear view, 2016, Archives, Greenwich Historical Society, Cos Cob, Connecticut.
Fig. 2. Holley House, Cos Cob, rear view, 2016, Archives, Greenwich Historical Society, Cos Cob, Connecticut.
Old Holley House, Cos Cob, ca. 1901 (OP.1508). Fig. 3. Southern view of Bush-Holley House, present-day photograph taken from the vantage point of the former barn. Greenwich Historical Society, Cos Cob, Connecticut.
Fig. 3. Southern view of Bush-Holley House, present-day photograph taken from the vantage point of the former barn. Greenwich Historical Society, Cos Cob, Connecticut.
Image: Maggie Dimock
Old Holley House, Cos Cob, ca. 1901 (OP.1508). Fig. 4. Holley House, Cos Cob, south side, ca. 1925. Archives, Greenwich Historical Society, Cos Cob, Connecticut.
Fig. 4. Holley House, Cos Cob, south side, ca. 1925. Archives, Greenwich Historical Society, Cos Cob, Connecticut.
Keywords
OP.1508
Old Holley House, Cos Cob
Alternate titles: Old Holley House; Old Holley House, Cos Cob—Winter; Old Holley House, Winter; Old Holly House at Cos Cob; Old Holly House in Winter; Old Holly House, Cos Cob—Winter
ca. 1901
Oil on canvas
25 3/16 x 25 3/16 in. (64 x 64 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman–
Cincinnati Art Museum, John J. Emery Endowment (1916.3)
Provenance
William T. Evans, New York, by 1910;
to (American Art Association, New York, Evans sale, March 31, 1913, lot 119);
to (Knoedler, 1913);
to present collection, 1916.
Exhibitions
1908 Wentworth Manor
Wentworth Manor, Montclair, New Jersey, American Paintings: Collection of William T. Evans, November 1908, no. 133, as Old Holley House, Winter.
1910 Lotos Club
Lotos Club, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by French and American Luminists, December 17, 1910 and following days, no. 46, as Old Holly House in Winter.
1911 Wentworth Manor
Wentworth Manor, Montclair, New Jersey, American Paintings: Collection of William T. Evans, February 1911, no. 140, as Old Holley House, Winter.
1913 Knoedler
Knoedler Gallery, New York, Sixth Annual Summer Exhibition of American Artists, Summer 1913, inventory no. 15157, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob—Winter.
1913 American Art Galleries
American Art Galleries, New York, The Private Collection of American Paintings Formed by the Widely Known Amateur William T. Evans, Esq. of New York, March 31–April 2, 1913, no. 119, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob—Winter.
1913 Memorial Art Gallery
Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, New York, Inaugural Exhibition, October 8–29, 1913, no. 124, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob—Winter.
1923 Cincinnati Art Museum
Cincinnati Art Museum, Special Exhibition of Former Cincinnati Artists, April 7–23, 1923, no. 32, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
1942–I Cincinnati Art Museum
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati Artists of the Past, January 16–April 19, 1942, no. 83, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
1947 Ohio University
Ohio University, Athens, Ohio Paintings, October 13–November 1, 1947, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
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. 34, frontispiece, ill. in color, as Old Holly House at Cos Cob.
1979 Cincinnati Art Museum
Cincinnati Art Museum, The Golden Age: Cincinnati Painters of the Nineteenth Century Represented in the Cincinnati Art Museum, October 6, 1978–January 13, 1979, no. 286, pp. 106, 197 ill. in b/w, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
1980 Henry Art Gallery
Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, American Impressionism, January 3–March 2, 1980, p. 66 ill. in color, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob. Traveled to: Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, March 9–May 4, 1980; Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, May 16–June 22, 1980; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, July 1–August 31, 1980.
1982 Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service
Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Musée du Petit Palais, Paris, Lines of Different Character: American Art from 1727–1947, March 31, 1982–January 8, 1983, no. 69, ill. in color, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
1990 Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation
Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation, Villa Favorita, Lugano-Castagnola, Switzerland, Masterworks of American Impressionism, July 22–October 28, 1990, no. 35, pp. 92–93 ill. in color, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
1999 High Museum of Art
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist, February 26–May 21, 2000. (Peters 1999–I), no. 52, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob. Traveled to: Cincinnati Art Museum, June 6–September 5, 1999; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, October 16, 1999–January 2, 2000.
2001 National Academy of Design
National Academy of Design, New York, The Cos Cob Art Colony: Impressionists on the Connecticut Shore, February 13–May 13, 2001. (Larkin 2001–I), as Old Holley House, Cos Cob. Traveled to: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, June 17–September 16, 2001; Denver Art Museum, October 27, 2001–January 20, 2002.
Literature
American Art Association 1913
Private Collection Formed by the Widely Known Amateur William T. Evans. Auction catalogue, March 3–April 2, 1913. New York: American Art Association, 1913, lot 119 ill. in b/w, as Old Holly House, Cos Cob—Winter.
Athens Messenger 1947
"Coonskin Library, Founders Exhibits Included in Display at Cutler Hall." Athens Messenger (Ohio), October 13, 1947, as Old Holly House at Cos Cob.
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. 555 (catalogue A, no. 297), as Old Holley House, Cos Cob—Winter. (Hale concordance).
Young 1967–I
[Young], [Mahonri Sharp]. "Letter from USA." Apollo 85 (February 1967), p. 146 ill. in b/w, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
Boyle 1971
Boyle, Richard J. "From Hiram Powers to Laser Light." Apollo 93 (April 1971), p. 311 ill. in color, 314, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
Boyle 1974–I
Boyle, Richard. American Impressionism. Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1974, pp. 93, 167–68, ill. in color, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
Boyle 1979
Boyle, Richard. John Twachtman. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1979, pp. 38–39 ill., in color, 42, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
Carter and Weber 1979
Carter, Denny and Bruce Weber. The Golden Age: Cincinnati Painters of the Nineteenth Century Represented in the Cincinnati Art Museum. Cincinnati: Cincinnati Art Museum, 1979, pp. 106, 197 ill. in b/w, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
Gerdts 1980
Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. Seattle: Henry Art Gallery, 1980. Exhibition catalogue, p. 66 ill. in color, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
Janson 1982
Janson, Anthony. "The Cincinnati Landscape Tradition." In Celebrate Cincinnati Art: In Honor of the Hundredth Anniversary of the Cincinnati Art Museum, 1881–1981. Cincinnati: Cincinnati Art Museum, 1982. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 23, 25, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
Gerdts 1984
Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. New York: Abbeville, 1984, p. 159 ill. in color, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
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. 37 ill. in b/w, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
Larkin 1990
Larkin, Susan G. On Home Ground: Elmer Livingston MacRae at the Holley House. Greenwich, Conn.: The Bruce Museum, 1990. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 26 ill. in b/w (fig. 7), 27, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
Gerdts 1990–I
Gerdts, William H. "American Impressionism." In Landschaft im Licht: Impressionistische Malerei in Europa und Nordamerika, 1860–1910, ed. Götz Czymmek. Zurich: Wallraf-Richartz Museum, 1990. Exhibition catalogue, p. 120 ill. in b/w, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
Gerdts 1990–II
Gerdts, William H. Masterworks of American Impressionism. Lugano-Castagnola, Switzerland: Fondazione Thyssen-Bornemisza, 1990. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 92–93 ill. in color, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
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. 420; vol. 2, p. 958 ill. in b/w (fig. 450), as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
Larkin 1996
Larkin, Susan G. "'A Regular Rendezvous for Impressionists:' The Cos Cob Art Colony 1882–1920." Ph.D. dissertation, 1996. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microforms, 1996, pp. xiii, 58, 170, 320 ill. in b/w (2.22), as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
Peters 1999–I
Peters, Lisa N. John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist. Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 1999. Exhibition catalogue (1999 High Museum of Art), pp. 150–51 ill. in color, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
Larkin 2001–I
Larkin, Susan G. The Cos Cob Art Colony: Impressionists on the Connecticut Shore. New York: National Academy of Design in association with Yale University, 2001. Exhibition catalogue (2001 National Academy of Design), pp. 110, 112 ill. in color, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
Larkin 2001–II
Larkin, Susan G. "The Cos Cob Art Colony." American Art Review 13 (February 2001), p. 105 ill. in color, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
Larkin 2001–IV
Larkin, Susan G. "John Henry Twachtman (1853-1902), Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut, 1902." In American Dreams: American Art to 1905 in the Williams College Museum of Art. Williamstown, Mass.: Williams College Museum of Art, 2001, pp. 106 ill. in b/w, 108, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
Peters 2020–II
Peters, Lisa N. "Twachtman's Old Holley House, Cos Cob." History from Home, Greenwich Historical Society, 2020, as Old Holley House, Cos Cob.
Commentary

Old Holley House, Cos Cob depicts the Holley House through the filter of a snow-covered landscape. The painting at first appears to be a midwinter scene. However, an undated letter Twachtman sent to his son John Alden Twachtman (who was in Paris at the time) indicates that it was rendered in mid-March 1901. In the letter Twachtman drew a sketch of the painting (fig. 1) and stated: “Yesterday I painted all day looking from a window at the blizzard . . . . [I]t was beautiful and I could not stop painting and painted until it was too dark to see and I was tired out. It seemed to be a fifty round go and I got knocked out at about the eleventh round.” He went on to comment: “I saw Macmonnies to-day at the club and he complimented me on some things of mine he saw at Durand Ruels.”[1]

The club he refers to is The Players Club in New York City on Gramercy Park, where he was a member and stayed during his last years when he was not at the Holley House. From the letter's contents, it is clear that Twachtman wrote the letter between March 4 and March 16, 1901, when his solo show was on view at New York’s Durand-Ruel Gallery. There it was visited by the artist Frederick Macmonnies, a member of the club and a friend—as was Twachtman—of the architect Stanford White. In fact, intriguingly an article in the Port Chester Journal describes a heavy snowstorm that arrived suddenly in Greenwich on the afternoon of March 14.[2] It seems likely that the painting was the product of that very day and storm.

In the painting, Twachtman depicted the southern and rear wing of the Holley House rather than its better-known east-facing front facade, where two large porches overlooked the Lower Landing on Cos Cob’s small harbor. The window from which he observed the scene appears to have been on the second floor of a barn or stable that once stood to the northwest of Toby’s Tavern (which served as a “Railroad Hotel” in the era of the Cos Cob colony, and was returned to its late-nineteenth-century appearance during the reimagining of the Greenwich Historical Society’s museum-campus in 2018).[3] The structure from which Twachtman painted is no longer extant, having been demolished sometime after 1935, but its appearance is today mirrored in the footprint and orientation of the Library & Archives and Permanent Collection wing of the Historical Society’s museum building.[4]

Viewed from the south, the house is an irregular structure, revealing its separate parts that were added over time (fig. 2).[5] However, as a contemporary photograph taken from Twachtman’s angle demonstrates (fig. 3), his view gave the house an appearance of unity and solidity, which he captured in his painting by rendering it monumentally within a square-shaped arrangement, parallel to the picture plane.[6] In the painting, the section visible at the right consists of the south wing of the house (its earliest part, built 1728–33), which extended outward 15–20 feet. Behind it is the southern gable end of the main house (constructed 1730–33). Through foreshortening Twachtman revealed that these two parts seemed close together from his vantage point and he observed how the chimney at the center of the main house appeared to be at its far end (at the right).

The section of the house at the left is its west (rear) wing, added sometime between 1755 and 1771 as a back kitchen. Its second story was likely used as a slave quarters by David Bush (1733–1797) and his son Justus Luke Bush (1777–1844), who operated a tide mill on Cos Cob’s Lower Landing.[7] The west wing’s facade is two-toned, with white planks on the ground floor and rusticated siding on the second floor. On a day when snow softened the atmosphere, Twachtman recorded this distinction subtly by using tints of blue (on the ground floor) and red (on the second floor).

Here, using firm strokes of white paint, he recorded the way that the snow gathering on the two gables at the right continued downward into the parallel horizontals of the west wing’s roof and awning. Across the façade, he recorded the rhythmic pattern of the windows that appear darkened against the blizzard-filled air. Studying the snow closely, he observed that it was higher than the base of the house and had been blown in drifts against its walls. In the foreground, he applied sweeping strokes of buttery pigment and may have used a palette knife to capture the wetness and density of a typical spring snow.

Twachtman featured another aspect of the setting in the form of a pergola situated outside the door to the western addition (fig. 4). It was covered with leafy vines in the warmer months, which Twachtman acknowledged by painting it in green pigment. At the left, an evergreen tree obscures a chimney at the far west end of the house (visible in Twachtman’s sketch of the painting). In the painting, he used the tree to bracket the house within the composition.

A second tree is even more prominent in the work: the young tree in the middle distance on which new leaves have begun to sprout. Susan G. Larkin interprets the slender sapling as “a metaphor of youth in contrast with the aged building, whose arboreal emblem might be the evergreen that cushions its strong horizontals.” She writes: “Snow suggests the winter of life, the end of a cycle. For Twachtman, the old house inspires introspection on time and change.”[8]

The near tree was also a means by which Twachtman created depth in the scene, establishing a midpoint between his vantage point and the house. Before him, snow covered the ground in deep, unbroken waves, making it seem that traveling across it would be difficult despite the near proximity of the house. Seeing the house, where he was an insider accustomed to its warmth and comfort, from the perspective of a detached observer, enabled Twachtman to express his heightened appreciation of the stability it offered him.

By 1910 this painting belonged to the prominent collector William T. Evans, who probably purchased it from the artist’s estate. It was acquired by M. Knoedler & Co., New York, from the sale of works from Evans’s collection in 1913 for $900 and sold to the Cincinnati Art Museum Association in 1916 for $2,000.[9]

[1]  Twachtman to John Alden Twachtman, ca. March 15, 1901.

[2] “They started for Banksville,” Port Chester Journal, March 21, 1901, p. 4. The article describes members and friends of the Hope Council No. 9, Daughters of America, who left Port Chester, New York, on Thursday, March 14, to pay a visit to the Victory Council, No. 15, located in Banksville, New York, which extends over the Connecticut border into Greenwich. When the group set out, the “sun shone brightly.” The article stated: “from the Toll Gate through Greenwich, the roads were in fair condition,” but from then it began to rain heavily. The group obtained permission to wait out the rain at the hall at Stanwich, in northern Greenwich, from where they intended to return home long before midnight. However, as noted in the article, “it started to snow quite hard, and before the time arrived to depart for home the ground was covered with nearly four inches of snow. The group returned at 2 in the morning, reaching Port Chester at 4:30 in the morning.

[3] Constructed probably in 1805 as a two-story modified saltbox and expanded in 1855 into an Italianate three-story “Railroad House” hotel, Toby’s Tavern has now been restored, with an exterior that matches its 1855–1935 appearance. An analysis of the site in preparation for its restoration can be found in David Scott Parker, Architects, “Historic Structures Report and Feasibility Study” (unpublished manuscript, 2013).

[4] Parker 2013, pp. 82–83.

[5] In 2000, architectural historian James Sexton produced a comprehensive study of the house, in which he determined the inaccuracy of earlier ideas about the structure’s evolution. James Sexton, “Bush-Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut: A Historic Structure Report” (unpublished manuscript, Greenwich Historical Society Library & Archives, 2000). Sexton’s research was the basis in 2015 for a continued study of the property, for its further preservation: David Scott Parker, “Findings & Suggestions: Based on the Bush-Holley House Historic American Buildings Survey Conducted December 2014–February 2015” (unpublished manuscript, 2015).

[6]  Twachtman’s viewpoint is the result of an analysis in 2020 of historical material and the site itself by Greenwich Historical Society curator Maggie Dimock.

[7] Sexton 2000 indicates that it was probably between 1848 and 1882 that the roof of this section of the house was raised and three windows facing south were added.

[8] Larkin 2001–I, p. 130.

[9] Knoedler Book 6, stock no. 13157, p. 60, row 45. Knoedler Dealer Stock Books, Getty Research Institute.

Selected Literature

From Larkin 2001–I

An impression of steadfast endurance permeates Twachtman’s Old Holley House (fig. 63). Twachtman honored the past in a boldly modern composition. He chose a viewpoint that emphasized the structure’s age by revealing its saltbox construction, then reduced the traditional architecture to a set of cubes, rectangles, and triangles. Cropping the two-story front porches that were nineteenth-century additions, he extended the building's solid geometry from edge to edge of the canvas. The square format reinforces the sense of equilibrium conveyed by the calm blue-violet palette, which unites the house with the earth and sky. The slender sapling in the right foreground is a metaphor of youth in contrast with the aged building, whose arboreal emblem might be the evergreen that cushions its strong horizontals. Snow suggests the winter of life, the end of a cycle. For Twachtman, the old house inspires introspection on time and change [p. 110].