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.701
Mouth of the Seine
ca. ca. 1884–85
Etching on paper
3 1/4 x 4 1/2 in. (8.3 x 11.4 cm)
[Signed below plate, lower right, by the artist's son Alden: JHT per AT]
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Gift of Robert Burkert (2006.1835)
Provenance
Literature
Wickenden 1921
Wickenden, R[obert] J. The Art and Etchings of John Henry Twachtman. New York: Frederick Keppel, 1921, pp. 11 ill. in b/w, 29, 47, as Mouth of the Seine.
Baskett 1966
Baskett, Mary Welsh. "Prints." In John Henry Twachtman: A Retrospective Exhibition, by Richard J. Boyle, Mary Welsh Baskett, and Philip R. Adams. Cincinnati: Cincinnati Art Museum, 1966. Exhibition catalogue (1966 Cincinnati Art Museum), pp. 33, 38 ill. in b/w, as Mouth of the Seine.
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. 719 ill. in b/w (fig. 187), as Mouth of the Seine.
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. 96–97, ill. in b/w, as Mouth of the Seine. (Baskett concordance).
Commentary

Twachtman appears to have created this etching to represent his painting, now known as Mouth of the Seine, (OP.705). This title identifies the two works as images of the Seine River's source, the point where it issues into the English channel on the Normandy coast. However, the painting appears to have been included as On the Seine, Near Paris, in the sale of the work of Twachtman and Julian Alden Weir, held February 7,1889 at the Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, New York. This raises questions about the site of these works. "Mouth of the Seine" was first used as a title for this etching, when it was reproduced in the 1921 catalogue of the artist's etchings published by Keppel Gallery (Wickenden 1921). 

In the etching, Twachtman left behind the sketchlike method of his earlier work in the medium, creating a well-realized perspective, in which two barges are anchored in the foreground on a waterway that recedes gradually to the right. Beyond a land mass at the horizon line, the quiet bay issues into the sea. Even though the etching was probably intended to represent the painting and give the image greater circulation, there are several differences in the two images, such as the middle ground, which is more compressed in the etching and the land mass in the distance, which appears farther away in the etching.

Recognizing this image as one created with "care and precision," Wickenden described it as "a group of canal boats with bare vertical masts are attached to the shore to the left and long level shore lines extend across the distance" (p. 29). 

The impression in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, illustrated here, is a posthumous etching. It was among nineteen etchings reprinted for the 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.