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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Additional Images
Mill Creek, Cincinnati, ca. 1879–80 (E.503). Fig. 1. Mill Creek, near Spring Grove Cemetery, from Kraemer's Picturesque Cincinnati (Cincinnati: A. O. and G. A. Kraemer, 1898, p. 79.
Fig. 1. Mill Creek, near Spring Grove Cemetery, from Kraemer's Picturesque Cincinnati (Cincinnati: A. O. and G. A. Kraemer, 1898, p. 79.
Mill Creek, Cincinnati, ca. 1879–80 (E.503). Fig. 2. Martha Scudder Twachtman, A Ruin on Mill Creek, ca. 1880, etching on paper, 4 x 5 1/8 in., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (M5095).
Fig. 2. Martha Scudder Twachtman, A Ruin on Mill Creek, ca. 1880, etching on paper, 4 x 5 1/8 in., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (M5095).
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Keywords
E.503
Mill Creek, Cincinnati
Alternate title: Miami River near Cincinnati
ca. 1879–80
Etching on paper
3 15/16 x 5 1/16 in. (10 x 12.9 cm)
[Signed below plate, lower right, by the artist's son Alden: JHT per AT]
Cincinnati Art Museum, The Albert Strietmann Collection and various funds (1983.27)
Provenance
Literature
Wickenden 1921
Wickenden, R[obert] J. The Art and Etchings of John Henry Twachtman. New York: Frederick Keppel, 1921, pp. 31, 48, as Miami River near Cincinnati.
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. 128; vol. 2, p. 641 ill. in b/w (fig. 93), as Miami River near Cincinnati.
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. 70–71, ill. in b/w, 124, as Mill Creek, Cincinnati. (Baskett concordance).
Commentary

Mary Baskett identifies this etching as a view of Mill Creek in Cincinnati, near the Spring Grove Cemetery (fig. 1). The locale is also depicted in an Martha Scudder's etching A Ruin on Mill Creek, which she probably rendered in 1880, a year before she and Twachtman married (fig. 2). In fact, the courtship of the two artists is indicated in the similarity of their images. It seems likely that they worked side by side, deriving inspiration from each other.

Nonetheless, there are differences in the two works. Baskett observes that Scudder’s is “more conventional and descriptive than the one by Twachtman, who appeared to have more interest in the abstract elements of the composition.” This quality in Twachtman's image is due to his stronger forward tilt of his picture plane, which emphasizes the work's surface pattern. Nonetheless, he paid close attention to what he observed, conveying the roundedness of the clouds and the sharp bend in the river. These aspects of the landscape are less evident in Scudder's image.

Wickenden wrote that in Twachtman's etching the "interest is concentrated in the distance, towards which the lightly indicated lines of the river-bank lead the eye; an island breaks the stream in the middle distance and tufts of cloud float over the dark woods beyond" (p. 31).

The impression of this etching in the Cincinnati Art Museum, illustrated here, is a lifetime print.