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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
Tuscan Scene, ca. 1880–81 (OP.401). Fig. 2. Ponte alla Badia, Fiesole, Italy, May 2023.
Fig. 2. Ponte alla Badia, Fiesole, Italy, May 2023.
Image: Lisa N. Peters
Tuscan Scene, ca. 1880–81 (OP.401). OP.401, Tuscan Scene, detail with signature.
OP.401, Tuscan Scene, detail with signature.
Tuscan Scene, ca. 1880–81 (OP.401). Verso: OP.401, Tuscan Scene.
Verso: OP.401, Tuscan Scene.
Related Work
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Keywords
OP.401
Tuscan Scene
ca. 1880–81
Oil on canvas
15 1/8 x 18 1/4 in. (38.4 x 46.4 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman
Location unknown
Image: Roz Akin
Provenance
Sisters of St. Francis Convent, Rochester, Minnesota, ca. 1908;
to (John Kreusel's General Merchandise and Auction Co., Rochester, Minnesota, May 3, 2008);
to (Spanierman, 2008).
Exhibitions
2011 Spanierman
Spanierman Gallery, New York, Seeing Abstractly: Works on Paper and Small Oils by John Henry Twachtman, December 15, 2011–January 14, 2012. (Exhibition catalogue: Peters 2011), no. 3, as Tuscan Scene.
Literature
Peters 2011
Peters, Lisa N. Seeing Abstractly: Works on Paper and Small Oils by John Henry Twachtman. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2011. Exhibition catalogue (2011 Spanierman), pp. 2 ill. in color, 13 ill. in color, as Tuscan Scene.
Commentary

In 1880–81, Twachtman taught at a school Frank Duveneck established in Florence, that Duveneck had begun in Munich in September 1879. When he was not giving instruction, Twachtman painted in the countryside, and this work is among his views of the Valley of the Mugnone, south of Fiesole. As in Florence near Fiesole  OP.400, the painting features a one-span arched bridge that crossed the narrow and winding Mugnone River, a tributary of the Arno (often described as a creek). His view is from the north side of the Via Faentina looking east with buildings in Ponte alla Badia set into the hills at the right. The bridge today has been replaced and reinforced but the site remains much as it was (fig. 1). (See also Florence near Fiesole, figs. 1–2 for images of the bridge and its locale). Although Twachtman rendered the scene freely, his structured composition evokes the classical tradition and the influence of the Italian scenes of Camille Corot. 

By ca. 1908, this painting belonged to the Sisters of St. Francis Convent, Rochester, Minnesota. Its earlier history is unknown.