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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

OP.1150
Misty May Morn
Alternate titles: Misty May Morning; Misty Morning; Morning
ca. 1899
Oil on canvas
25 1/8 x 30 in. (63.8 x 76.2 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: J. H. Twachtman– / 1899
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., Gift of John Gellatly (1929.6.141)
Provenance
John Gellatly, by 1907;
gift to present collection, 1929.
Exhibitions
1899 Ten American Painters probably
Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, Ten American Painters, April 4–15, 1899, as Morning.
1899 Cincinnati Art Museum probably
Cincinnati Art Museum, Sixth Annual Exhibition of American Art, May 20–July 10, 1899, no. 19, as Morning.
1899 Carnegie Institute probably
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Fourth Annual Exhibition, November 2, 1899–January 1, 1900, no. 230, as Morning.
1901–I Durand-Ruel probably
Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, Paintings and Pastels by John H. Twachtman, March 4–16, 1901, as Misty Morning.
1901–I Cincinnati Art Museum probably
Cincinnati Art Museum, Exhibition of Sixty Paintings by Mr. John H. Twachtman, Formerly Resident in Cincinnati, April 12–May 16, 1901, no. 42, as Misty Morning.
1907–I Lotos Club
Lotos Club, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by the Late John H. Twachtman, January 5–31, 1907, no. 13, as Misty May Morning.
1928 Milch
Milch Galleries, New York, An Important Exhibition of Paintings and Pastels by John H. Twachtman, March 12–24, 1928, as Misty May Morning, added to the show after the catalogue was printed.
1966 Cincinnati Art Museum
Cincinnati Art Museum, John Henry Twachtman: A Retrospective Exhibition, October 7–November 20, 1966. (Exhibition catalogue: Baskett 1966); (Exhibition catalogue: Boyle 1966–I), no. 41, as Misty May Morn, lent by the National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
2000 Smithsonian American Art Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum, New York, American Impressionism: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2000–2003, pp. 100–101 ill. in color (detail), as Misty May Morn. Traveled to: Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York, June 17–July 30, 2000; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, August 20–October 29, 2000; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, November 18, 2000–February 4, 2001; Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, New Jersey, March 4–May 20, 2001; Tacoma Art Museum, Washington, April 7–June 17, 2001; Portland Museum of Art, Maine, June 21–October 21, 2001; Worcester Art Museum, October 7, 2001–January 6, 2002; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, November 17, 2001–January 20, 2002.
2014–15 Terra Foundation for American Art
Terra Foundation for American Art, Musée des impressionnismes Giverny, Giverny, France, American Impressionism: A New Vision, 1880–1900, March 28–June 29, 2014. (Bourguignon 2014), as Misty May Morn. Traveled to: National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, July 19–October 19, 2014; Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, November 4, 2014–February 1, 2015.
Literature
Artist 1899 probably
"Ten American Painters." Artist 25 (May–June 1899), p. viii, as Morning.
Du Bois 1899 probably
Du Bois, Henri Pené. "Plays of Light Painted by Nine Men in the Annual Show of the Ten." New York Journal and Advertiser, April 4, 1899, p. 10, as Morning.
New-York Tribune 1899 probably
"Art Exhibitions: The 'Ten American Painters.'" New-York Tribune, April 4, 1899, p. 6, as Morning.
Sun 1899 probably
"Art Notes: Second Exhibition of Ten American Painters at Durand-Ruel's." Sun (New York), April 6, 1899, p. 6, as Morning.
Mail and Express 1901 probably
"Art Notes." Mail and Express (New York), March 7, 1901, p. 5, as Morning.
New-York Tribune 1901–II probably
"Art Exhibitions: Paintings by Mr. Twachtman." New-York Tribune, March 6, 1901, p. 6, as Morning.
Art Bulletin 1907
"John Twachtman." Art Bulletin 6 (January 5, 1907), p. 1, as Misty May Morning.
Smithsonian Institution 1933
Smithsonian Institution. Catalogue of American and European Paintings in the Gellatly Collection. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1933, p. 18, as Misty May Morn.
Smithsonian Institution 1954
Smithsonian Institution. Catalogue of American and European Paintings in the Gellatly Collection. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1954, p. 16, as Misty May Morn.
Hale 1957
Hale, John Douglass. "Life and Creative Development of John H. Twachtman." 2 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1957. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, 1958, vol. 1, p. 353 ill. in b/w (fig. 111); vol. 2, p. 561 (catalogue A, no. 425), as Misty May Morn. (Hale concordance).
Boyle 1978
Boyle, Richard J. "John H. Twachtman: An Appreciation." American Art & Antiques 1 (November–December 1978), pp. 73 ill. in color, 74, as Misty May Morn.
Boyle 1979
Boyle, Richard. John Twachtman. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1979, pp. 17, 48–49 ill. in color, as Misty May Morn.
National Museum of American Art 1983
National Museum of American Art. Descriptive Catalogue of Painting and Sculpture in the National Museum of American Art. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1983, p. 196, as Misty May Morn.
Peters 1989–I
Peters, Lisa N. "Twachtman's Greenwich Paintings: Context and Chronology." In John Twachtman: Connecticut Landscapes, by Deborah Chotner, Lisa N. Peters, and Kathleen A. Pyne. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1989. Exhibition catalogue (1989–II National Gallery of Art), pp. 40 ill. in b/w, 41, as Misty May Morn.
Gerdts 1990–VI
Gerdts, William H. "The Ten: A Critical Chronology." In Ten American Painters, by William H. Gerdts et al. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 1990. Exhibition catalogue, p. 131, as Misty May Morn.
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. 389; vol. 2, p. 942 ill. in b/w (fig. 428), as Misty May Morn.
Nelson 2006
Nelson, John. "From a Personal Perspective." In John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter", by Lisa N. Peters. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Spanierman), p. 11, as Misty May Morn.
Peters 2006–III
Peters, Lisa N. "Twachtman and the Equipoise of Impressionism and Tonalism." In John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter", by Lisa N Peters. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Spanierman), pp. 68 ill. in color (fig. 60), as Misty May Morn.
Bourguignon 2014
Bourguignon, Katherine M. American Impressionism: A New Vision 1880–1900. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014. Exhibition catalogue (2014–15 Terra Foundation for American Art), p. 128 ill. in color, as Misty May Morn.
Butler 2019
Butler, Eliza. "John Henry Twachtman and the Materiality of Snow." American Art 33 (Fall 2019), pp. 84 ill. in color, 85, as Misty May Morn.
Commentary

Twachtman used the word Morning, and variations of it, for titles on several occasions. His 1891 exhibition at Wunderlich Gallery included a painting shown as Morning Mist, and a work with the title of Morning was featured in 1893 at the American Art Galleries. Neither of these works was mentioned in reviews.

Inscribed “J. H. Twachtman 1899,” Misty May Morn is among very few works from the artist’s Greenwich years to be dated. The date suggests that the painting was the work shown as Morning in the second exhibition of the Ten American Painters in 1899. Reviews that mentioned the work further suggest that this was the case. The New York Daily Tribune praised the painting and its mood: “‘Morning’ is a sympathetic and almost a masterly interpretation of an enchanting scene, studied in an enchanting hour. The tender, palpitating light; the fragile, elusive tree forms; the rare sentiment of the theme, the inarticulate poetry of it, are all brought together in a pictorial whole that is conceived with originality and handled with sure understanding.” For other excerpts from the exhibition’s reviews, see Selected literature.

The painting was probably also the work exhibited as Misty Morning in Twachtman’s 1901 shows in New York and Cincinnati. The New York Tribune described Misty Morning as a depiction of “trees in the foreground, the rising land in the distance and the stream between,” which “give the spectator a refreshing and delightful sense as of being in the presence of the scene itself.” The writer concluded: “The ‘Misty Morning’ is not only a portrait of a place. It is a picture. Possibly Mr. Twachtman meant it to be one.” (See Selected literature for the full commentary.)

The painting became known as Misty May Morning in 1907, after it became part of the collection of John Gellatly. “Morning” seems to have become shortened to Morn after the painting entered its current collection and “May” was also added to the title.

Selected Literature

From New York Sun 1899

Mr. Twachtman, too, sends one picture “Morning,” that is much finer than anything he showed at the first exhibition of the Ten. The atmosphere of the dawn is exquisitely expressed; there is a delicate poetic feeling in the picture not always found in the work of Mr. Twachtman.

From Artist 1899

There were four landscapes by J. H. Twachtman.  He had hung ‘Morning’ in the centre, apparently giving it the place of honor.  At any rate, it attracted most approval from visitors, and not surprisingly, for it was very beautiful.  Just a placid stream, with one bank, covered with a wood, the other dotted with trees and bushes; but the whole was wrapt in early morning mist, giving a dainty radiance and spirituality.  It was not so much morning that was expressed as its very soul.
          Twachtman had “hung ‘Morning’ in the centre [of his group of works], apparently giving it the place of honor.  At any rate, it attracted most approval from visitors, and not surprisingly, for it was very beautiful.  Just a placid stream with one bank covered with a wood, the other dotted with trees and bushes; but the whole was wrapt in early morning mist, giving a dainty radiance and spirituality.  Really it is seldom that one sees a picture which so inevitably suggests that word spirituality. It was not so much morning that was expressed as its very soul; not so much what morning is as what in rare moments we feel it to be: the Greek incarnation of Eos resolved again into her elements, and thereby the more spiritual.

From New-York Tribune 1901–II

In a picture like Mr. Twachtman’s "Misty Morning," wherein the trees in the foreground, the rising land in the distance and the stream between give the spectator a refreshing and delightful sense as of being in the presence of the scene itself, it seems as if the most imaginative of painters could not have achieved a more convincing report of the matter. But there are strange limitations to the art evidently of great service to the gatherer of material, but by its very nature it is opposed to the selective and constructive ideals which preside over the transformation of raw material into something more beautiful, more artistic. The "Misty Morning" is not only a portrait of a place. It is a picture. Possibly Mr. Twachtman meant it to be one.

From Boyle 1979

The composition of this picture is somewhat reminiscent of Monet’s paintings of the poplars along the river Epte near Giverny, but perhaps is even more reminiscent of a group of paintings Monet called his “Morning on the Seine” series, painted in 1897. These paintings show a shared moment when two artists, one French and one American, working several thousand miles apart, were each pursuing a common goal that resulted in an evocation of a special atmosphere and mood. . . . It was an atmosphere represented in the kind of painting for which Twachtman was both praised and criticized, a poetic aura that was also very much a part of the end of the nineteenth century [p. 48].