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This painting depicts a view looking east toward the rear side of the Holley House (see Glossary of Names), featuring the gabled end and chimney on the wing added to the structure between 1755 and 1771. The wing, which projected to the west, appears due to foreshortening to be flush against the main building's roof, whose chimney is visible at the center of the building. At the right is the southern wing, the structure's earliest section (built 1728–33). To the east is the Mianus River and the hills stretching beyond it. In the painting's immediate foreground is what appears to be Twachtman's only image of a horseless carriage, a small motorized car traveling along the road. His viewpoint was probably farther from the Holley House than it appears in the painting.
In a letter of March 28, 1942, the artist Charles Ebert stated to Robert McIntyre, Macbeth Gallery, (March 28, 1942) that the painting was rendered in 1902, when Twachtman was living at the Holley House.[1] Ebert states that he began the work and Twachtman finished it:
. . . The Twachtman picture you have was painted in May 1902. At the time, both Twachtman and myself were living in the Old Holly House in Cos Cob, which is the subject of the picture.
Twas a lovely afternoon. I gathered my traps and went up the hill to paint. Twachtman said he had some letters to write, so brought his portfolio and sat down behind me.
I set up my easel and canvas, set my palette and started.
Twachtman watched me a few moments, then got up and said, “here Ebert let me show you how to paint it.” I handed my brushes and palette (the same colors he used of course) and started in: talking as he painted. First he said “we will establish the value of the sky. Next the far bank of the river.” Gradually approaching the point of interest, the Old House.
He had trouble getting the wide sloping roof just right. After several attempts he said, “When the value of a roof is nearly the value of the sky behind it, if you look carefully you will find a faint line at the upper edge of the roof.” He put that in and said See.
“Now,” he said, “the most important dark is under the porch roof, and the most important light is next to it.” (the white wall) so he put that in “Whop!” that is too light!” so with the end of his finger he rubbed out some of it. Incidentally, I have no doubt leaving his finger print. He wiped his hand remarking that sometimes fingers are better than brushes. So establishing his greatest dark and light. He worked up the lines values up to the sides and foreground.
He said, always be careful of your edges, as you can see he was.
Near the old cherry tree in the foreground wall was a handsome little peach tree in bloom. I called attention to it and was told not to pay attention to little things, etc. After about two hours he said “There! let’s take a walk.
If you do sell it, I would request a good photo with permission to publish it in a future article about Twachtman.[2]
The letter is dated one year after Macbeth sold this painting to Williams College. Perhaps the museum's curator knew Ebert and solicited his commentary on the work's creation.
[1] McIntyre joined the firm in 1903 and became its president on the death of his cousin Robert Macbeth in 1940.
[2] File on the painting, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts.
From Larkin 2001–IV
. . . Ebert's account suggests that Twachtman was applying paint to a composition already sketched on the canvas. It was not Twachtman’s practice to make preliminary drawings, either on the canvas itself or on paper. Ebert, however, worked out many of his compositions in sketchbook drawings, sometimes even squaring up the pencil sketch for transfer to canvas. In Holley House, Cos Cob, Connecticut, penciled lines, not covered by paint, indicate the contours of the land and the branches of the trees. Presumably, additional underdrawing, now hidden by Twachtman’s brushstrokes, delineated the entire composition. The pencil lines left untouched reveal the older artist’s tendency to simplify. When Ebert pointed out a peach tree in full bloom, for example, Twachtman admonished him to omit “little things.” On the Williams canvas, a small tree sketched only in pencil remains as evidence of the contrasting approaches of the two artists.
Ebert selected the subject, vantage point, and palette for the Williams oil and most likely outlined the composition on the canvas. Twachtman’s teaching and example informed each of those decisions, however, complicating the question of proportional authorship [pp. 105–7].
- Museum website (egallery.williams.edu)