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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

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Keywords
E.802
The Old Toll House at Bridgeport (Small Plate)
Alternate titles: Bridgeport; Foot-Bridge, Bridgeport
ca. 1888
Etching on paper
5 5/8 x 7 7/8 in. (14.3 x 20 cm)
Signed in plate, lower left: J.H.T.
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Gift of John E. Andrus III (201.67.70)
Provenance
Literature
Ryerson 1920
Ryerson, Margery. "John H. Twachtman's Etchings." Art in America 8 (February 1920), pp. 93 ill. in b/w, 95–96, as Bridgeport.
Thorpe 1921
Thorpe, Jonathan. "John H. Twachtman." Arts 1 (October 1921), p. 8 ill. in b/w, as Foot-Bridge, Bridgeport.
Wickenden 1921
Wickenden, R[obert] J. The Art and Etchings of John Henry Twachtman. New York: Frederick Keppel, 1921, pp. 34, 40 ill. in b/w, 48, as Foot-Bridge, Bridgeport.
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), p. 33, as Foot-Bridge, Bridgeport.
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. 32–33 ill. in b/w, 164–65, ill. in b/w, as The Old Toll House at Bridgeport (Small Plate). (Baskett concordance).
Commentary

This etching was one of four works reproduced as illustrations in the catalogue for the auction of the work of Twachtman and Julian Alden Weir, held February 7, 1889, at the Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, New York. It represented an unlocated painting, The Old Toll House at Bridgeport (measuring 14 x 18 inches), which according to reviews included boats under the bridge. Twachtman depicted the scene in a few other images in different media, including an etching (E.804), a watercolor (WC.800), and a pastel (P.802).  This etching follows most closely in the spirit of the pastel, but in the etching Twachtman created more spatial consolidation, making the darkened form of the building on the far shore seem to rise directly above the diagonal of the bridge. 

The impression of this etching in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, illustrated here, is a lifetime print, State II. 

Lifetime states (from Baskett 1999)

I. Before initials in plate.

II. With initials in plate at lower left.

Selected Literature

From Ryerson 1920

We feel a Japanese influence in these etchings of the same kind that is in Whistler's work. Perhaps this is strongest in "The Old Toll House at Bridgeport.'" Here we hardly realize this rising bridge with the frail looking house beyond are in America. The loose free way they are etched helps to give this impression but it is probably aided by the lightness and simplicity of Twachtman's manner [p. 95].

From Wickenden 1921

For cumulation of a few telling notes in The Foot-Bridgeport, recalls the art of Whistler and the Japanese. The lightly-constructed bridge leads down to a dock, beyond which rises the dark gable of a building. Two poles crowned with hooded protectors for the electric lights and the loop of the connecting wires lend decorative accents, and the surrounding water with wavering reflections add life and movement.