Catalogue Entry
Depicting the Inner Harbor in Bridgeport, Connecticut, this watercolor is related to and in the same orientation as the painting (OP.826) and the etching Bridgeport (E.805), which was illustrated to represent the paitning in the catalogue for the Weir–Twachtman exhibition and sale, held in February 1889 at the Fifth Avenue Art Galleries (fig. 1).The watercolor may have derived from the etching, given that the etching is not in reverse. Nonetheless, that Twachtman's eye-level appears to be lower in the watercolor than in the painting and etching suggest that the watercolor is a plein-air work. Although rendered carefully, the buildings and harbor shapes are blocked in rather than labored over. Twachtman rendered the water by blending the paper's tone with a light drybrush grazing over the surface.Two long-hulled boats are also present here along the shore at the right that are not in other Bridgeport images.