John Henry Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné
An online catalogue by Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D., in collaboration with the Greenwich Historical Society
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Keywords
E.300
Shanties and Factories
Alternate titles: Shanties; Shanties, Bridgeport
1879–80
Etching on paper
2 3/8 x 3 5/8 in. (6 x 9.2 cm)
Signed in plate, lower right: J.H.T. [Signed below plate, lower right, by the artist's son Alden: JHT per AT]
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, Gift of Mrs. Hersey Egginton in memory of her son, Everett, Class of 1921 (PR.954.20.560)
Provenance
Literature
Wickenden 1921
Wickenden, R[obert] J. The Art and Etchings of John Henry Twachtman. New York: Frederick Keppel, 1921, pp. 34–35, 48, as Shanties, Bridgeport.
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. 94; vol. 2, p. 636 ill. in b/w (fig. 83), as Shanties.
Baskett 1999
Baskett, Mary Welsh. John Henry Twachtman: American Impressionist Painter as Printmaker—A Catalogue Raisonné of His Prints. Bronxville, N.Y.: M. Hausberg, 1999, pp. 60–61 ill. in b/w, as Shanties and Factories. (Baskett concordance).
Goff 2016
Goff, Lisa. Shantytown, USA: Forgotten Landscapes of the Working Poor. Cambridge: President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2016, p. 170, as Shanties and Factories.
Commentary

Mary Baskett states: "According to a label on the back of an old frame for this print, the plate must have been etched sometime before August 11, 1880, when it was framed together with Landscape with Footbridge (No. 5) (E.502]. The frame label read 'Invoice No. 252; Received August 11, 1880; Artist, J. H. Twachtman, Title, 2 etchings.' This label may have been for the exhibition at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, from April 11 to May 9, 1881, and/or for the Chicago Inter-State Exposition in the fall of 1880." 

In a few sources—Ryerson 1920, Wickenden 1921, and Baskett 1966—this etching is identified as a view of Bridgeport. However, its inclusion in an exhibition in 1880 indicates that is incorrect because Twachtman is not known to have worked in Bridgeport until 1888. Instead the work's site is more likely to be Jersey City, New Jersey, where Twachtman featured similar roughly built homes, with the presence of encroaching industry in the distance: Harbor View (OP.311) and Coast Scene (OP.310). The scene's Jersey City location is also suggested by the vertical  spire in the middle distance, which is probably that of the Bergen Baptist Church, New Jersey. In the image, Twachtman bracketed the spire with factory smokestacks to make its subtle presence evident. His use of etching as a means of sketching is apparent here, and he took note observantly of details along the road and in the factory.  

The impression in the Hood Museum of Art is a posthumous etching. It was among nineteen etchings reprinted for the 1921 exhibition at Frederick Keppel and Company, New York. According to Baskett, it was probably printed by Peter Platt, a professional printer who produced etchings for Childe Hassam and John Sloan. 

Lifetime states (from Baskett 1999)

I. Before "J.H.T." in plate, lower right. 

II. With "J.H.T." in plate, lower right.