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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
October, ca. 1901 (OP.1507). Fig. 1. Frank Seymour, the Joseph E. B. Brush House, Cos Cob, 1906. Greenwich Historical Society, Cos Cob, Connecticut.
Fig. 1. Frank Seymour, the Joseph E. B. Brush House, Cos Cob, 1906. Greenwich Historical Society, Cos Cob, Connecticut.
Related Work
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Keywords
OP.1507
October
Alternate title: Autumn
ca. 1901
Oil on canvas
30 x 30 in. (76.2 x 76.2 cm)
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia, Gift of Walter P. Chrysler Jr. (71.713)
Provenance
Martha Twachtman, the artist's wife, Greenwich, Connecticut;
to Charles Adams Platt, by 1910;
to his wife, Mrs. Charles Adams Platt, by 1934–36;
to (Milch, ca. 1937);
to Oliver P. James, Phoenix;
(Parke-Bernet, New York, October 24, 1946, lot 72);
to (Milch, by 1947);
Walter P. Chrysler, by 1962;
to present collection, 1971.
Exhibitions
1904 St. Louis Universal Exposition
Department of Fine Arts, St. Louis, Universal Exposition, April 30–December 1, 1904, no. 765, as October.
1907–I Lotos Club
Lotos Club, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by the Late John H. Twachtman, January 5–31, 1907, no. 30, as October, lent by Mrs. John H. Twachtman.
1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
Seattle, Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, June 1–October 16, 1909, no. 274, as October, lent by Silas S. Dustin, New York.
1910 Royal Academy of Art in Berlin
Königliche Akdemie der Künste zu Berlin, Austellung Amerikanischer Kunst, March 1910, as October, lent by Charles M. Platt, New York.
1911 Albright Art Gallery
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, Sixth Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists, May 12–September 28, 1911, no. 133, p. 39 ill. in b/w, as October, lent by Charles A. Platt, Esq.
1911 City Art Museum of St. Louis
City Art Museum of St. Louis, Sixth Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists, September 17–November 17, 1911, no. 120, p. 56 ill. in b/w, as October, lent by Charles A. Platt, Esq, New York.
1913 New York School of Applied Design for Women
New York School of Applied Design for Women, Fifty Paintings by the Late John H. Twachtman, January 15–February 15, 1913, no. 38, as October, loaned by Charles A. Platt, Esq.
1913–I Albright Art Gallery
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, Paintings and Pastels by the Late John H. Twachtman, March 11–April 2, 1913, no. 29, as October, lent by Charles A. Platt, Esq.
1914 John Herron Art Institute probably
John Herron Art Institute, Indianapolis, The Twenty-Ninth Annual Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture of the Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, January 1–February 1, 1914, no. 70, as Autumn.
1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition
Department of Fine Arts, San Francisco, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, February 20–December 4, 1915, no. 4051, as October, lent by Charles A. Platt, Esq.
1918 Detroit Institute of Arts
Detroit Institute of Arts, Fourth Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists, April 9–30, 1918, no. 120, as October.
1937 Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum, New York, Leaders of American Impressionism: Mary Cassatt, Childe Hassam, John H. Twachtman, and J. Alden Weir, October 17–November 28, 1937, no. 67, ill. in b/w (plate 8), as October, lent by Milch Gallery, New York.
1947 Lyman Allyn Museum
Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, Connecticut, Eighty Eminent Painters of Connecticut, March 9–April 20, 1947, no. 123, as October, lent by Milch Galleries, New York.
1949 Milch
Milch Galleries, New York, Paintings by John H. Twachtman, November 14–December 3, 1949, no. 5, as October.
1962 Chrysler Art Museum
Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Massachusetts, The Controversial Century, 1850–1950: Paintings from the Walter P. Chrysler Collection, 1962, as October.
1976 Chrysler Museum at Norfolk
Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Virginia, Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum, March 1–July 4, 1976, p. 166 ill. in color, as October.
1980 Hurlbutt Gallery
William Benton Museum, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut and American Impressionism, March 20–May 31, 1980, no. 148, p. 111 ill. in b/w, as October.
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. 53, as October. Traveled to: Cincinnati Art Museum, June 6–September 5, 1999; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, October 16, 1999–January 2, 2000.
2017 Taubman Museum of Art
Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, Virginia, American Impressionism in the Garden, February 19–May 14, 2017, as October.
Literature
Buffalo Fine Arts Academy 1913
Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. "Memorial Exhibition of the Works of John H. Twachtman." Albright Academy Notes 8 (April 1913), p. 66, as October.
Parke-Bernet 1946–IV
Paintings by Old and Modern Masters. Auction catalogue, October 24, 1946. New York: Parke-Bernet, 1946, lot 72, as October.
Art Quarterly 1947
Art Quarterly 10 (Fall 1947), p. 152 ill. in b/w, as October.
Reed 1949
Reed, Judith Kaye. "Twachtman's Sensitive Poetry." Art Digest 24 (November 15, 1949), p. 17, as October.
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. 563 (catalogue A, no. 450), as October. (Hale concordance).
Young 1978
Young, Mahonri Sharp. "Primitive to Pop." Apollo 107 (April 1978), pp. 284, 286 ill. in b/w, as October.
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, as October.
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. 468; vol. 2, p. 977 ill. in b/w (fig. 477), as October.
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. xxii, 173, 403 ill. in b/w (6.11), as October.
May 1999
May, Stephen. "John Twachtman: An American Impressionist." Antiques and the Arts Weekly (December 3, 1999), p. 71 ill. in b/w, as October.
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, 152 ill. in color, as October.
May 2000–II
May, Stephen. "Visual Poetry: The Landscapes of John Henry Twachtman." Art & Antiques 23 (February 2000), p. 68 ill. in color, as October.
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. 120–21 ill. in color, as October.
Gerdts 2003–I
Gerdts, William H. The Golden Age of American Impressionism. New York: Watson-Guptill, 2003, pp. 13, 67, 70 ill. in color, as October.
Commentary

This painting was exhibited as October in the 1904 St. Louis International Exposition. Even if Twachtman did not assign the work's title, the image is suggestive of the fall season, in its golden and salmon-hued foliage, with some green vegetation on the ground that has yet to change. In fact, among Twachtman's stays at the Holley House in 1901, one began on October 9.

The work depicts a subject that Twachtman rendered in the winter and spring as well, a view from on or near the Holley House porch looking toward the store (at the left), which was adjacent to the Brush House, the building with an upper porch and double red chimneys (on the Holley House, see Glossary of Names).[1] In the work, afternoon sunlight illuminates the front facade of the store while the rest of the scene is bathed in a soft haze. The work's square format lends itself to an image in which architectural and natural elements blend together to form an aesthetic totality. 

October remained in the artist's family after his death and was not in his 1903 estate sale. Perhaps it was held back by Martha Twachtman in order to send it to the St. Louis International Exposition in the following year. In 1907 she lent it to the memorial exhibition of Twachtman’s work at the Lotos Club. In 1909, the agent for the artist’s estate, Silas S. Dustin, assisted in the lending of the painting to the Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition in Seattle. The painting was purchased in 1910 by Twachtman’s friend, the artist, architect, and landscape designer Charles A. Platt (1861–1933) and was inherited by his wife. By 1962 it was owned by Walter Percy Chrysler Jr. (1909–1988), an avid art collector who established his first art museum in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in 1958. In 1971 he moved his collection to Norfolk, Virginia, where it became the basis for the Chrysler Museum of Art.

[1] Built between 1751 and 1784, the Brush House descended in the family of colonial settlers in Greenwich involved in the shipping trade and was occupied during Twachtman’s years in Greenwich by Joseph E. B. Brush (1833–1914), an eccentric, retired individual who lived alone. See Larkin 2001–I, pp. 119–25.

Selected Literature

From Larkin 2001–I

Twachtman’s concern between architecture and setting is . . . apparent in October. The graceful elm at the left of the composition and the diagonal row of shrubs stood on the Holleys’ side of Strickland Road, just beyond the porch where Twachtman set his easel. In October, he showed the relation of the Brush House to the millpond, sheltered the old house behind a neat white fence, and shaded it with a pair of trees perfectly matched in size and form. The reality was not so pristine as Twachtman’s canvas suggests. Haphazardly maintained by Joe Brush, the house was shabby at best. The trees were not the same size or species; an elm stood near the millpond, an oak or maple near the porch steps. The fence was chicken wire stretched over a rudimentary wooden frame. Yet October celebrates an ideal of life in a country village [p. 120].