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.700
French Landscape
Alternate titles: Road near Honfleur; Route près de Honfleur
ca. 1885
Etching with aquatint and drypoint on paper
8 3/8 x 5 7/8 in. (21.3 x 14.9 cm)
[Signed below plate, lower right, by the artist's son Alden: JHT per AT]
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., Museum purchase (1976.2)
Provenance
Literature
Wickenden 1921
Wickenden, R[obert] J. The Art and Etchings of John Henry Twachtman. New York: Frederick Keppel, 1921, pp. 17 ill. in b/w, 29–30, 47, as Road near Honfleur.
New York Times 1921–III
"The World of Art: Etchings of John Henry Twachtman." New York Times, November 13, 1921, p. BRM5, as Road near Honfleur.
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. 204; vol. 2, p. 721 ill. in b/w (fig. 189), as Road near Honfleur.
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. 94–95, ill. in b/w, as French Landscape. (Baskett concordance).
Spangenberg 2000
Spangenberg, Kristin. John Henry Twachtman: peintre et graveur. Musée d’Art Américain, Giverny, France, 2000. Exhibition catalogue (2000 Musée d’Art Américain, Giverny), (fig. 8), as Route près de Honfleur, collection, Terra Foundation for American Art (1989.15).
Commentary

A product of the summer of 1885, when Twachtman visited Honfleur, this etching depicts the same scene as his painting Road near Honfleur (OP.735), which was exhibited in his solo exhibition at J. Eastman Chase's Gallery, Boston, in January 1886 (1886 J. Eastman Chase's Gallery). Twachtman probably created the etching to represent the painting, and the image was reversed in the printing process . Nonetheless, the two images are different, and the etching has a vitality that is not as obvious in the painting. In the etching, Twachtman made use of accidental scratch marks, incorporating them into the design and he reinforced the motifs with firm lines, in the turn of the road and the rounded contours and upright shapes of the trees. In the painting, the house at the right is smaller and nestled more completely in the land, whereas it is more integral with the design here.   

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

Selected Literature

From Wickenden 1921

In . . . Road near Honfleur, the irregular lines of the roadway swing round a thatched cottage on the right and disappear up the hillside beyond. Against the sky appear the picture silhouettes of several poplars that border the rustic thoroughfare and distant woods limit the high sky-line. After etching the design in pure line the artist appears to have added tone with aquatint or Sulphur wash which reaches its intensest notes under the bank near the end of the cottage and in the foliage of the poplars. It brings to mind a manner Hervier was wont to employ and an apparent ease of accomplishment marks the free rendering of this quaint old Norman byway [pp. 29–30].

From New York Times 1921–II

The happy little "Road Near Honfleur," especially is distinguished by the subtle line of the wandering road, winding and climbing into a distance that bends at the horizon as the masters alone know how to make it bend; but again the amazing characteristic of the plate, with its rapid, sketchy lines and careless blotches of tone, is the massiveness of the effect.