John Henry Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné
An online catalogue by Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D., in collaboration with the Greenwich Historical Society
Catalogue Entry
OP.945
Meadow Flowers (Golden Rod and Wild Aster)
Alternate titles: Golden Rod and Wild Aster; Meadow Flowers
ca. 1892
Oil on canvas
33 1/16 x 22 3/16 in. (84 x 56.3 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman
Provenance
Exhibitions
American Art Galleries, New York, Paintings, Pastels, and Etchings by J. Alden Weir, J. H. Twachtman, Claude Monet, and Paul Albert Besnard, by May 4–mid-November 1893, no. 10, as Golden Rod and Wild Aster.
Wentworth Manor, Montclair, New Jersey, American Paintings: Collection of William T. Evans, November 1908, no. 136, as Meadow Flowers.
Wentworth Manor, Montclair, New Jersey, American Paintings: Collection of William T. Evans, February 1911, no. 147, as Meadow Flowers.
American Art Galleries, New York, The Private Collection of American Paintings Formed by the Widely Known Amateur William T. Evans, Esq. of New York, March 31–April 2, 1913, no. 135, as Meadow Flowers.
Department of Fine Arts, San Francisco, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, February 20–December 4, 1915, no. 4074, as Meadow Flowers, lent by the Brooklyn Museum.
Brooklyn Museum, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by American Impressionists and Other Artists of the Period 1880–1900, January 18–February 28, 1932, no. 113a, as Meadow Flowers.
Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, Presenting the Work of John H. Twachtman, American Painter, November 5–28, 1939, no. 16, as Meadow Flowers.
Brooklyn Museum, New York, Victoriana: An Exhibition of the Arts of the Victorian Era in America, April 7–June 5, 1960, no. 208, as Meadow Flowers.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., American Impressionist Painting, July 1–August 26, 1973, no. 62, p. 130 ill. in b/w, as Meadow Flowers. Traveled to: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 18–November 2, 1973; Cincinnati Art Museum, December 15, 1973–January 31, 1974; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, March 8–April 29, 1974.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Turn-of-the-Century America: Paintings, Graphics, Photographs, 1890–1910, June 30–October 2, 1977, p. 193, as Meadow Flowers. Traveled to: Saint Louis Art Museum, December 1, 1977–January 12, 1978; Seattle Art Museum, February 2–March 12, 1978; Oakland Museum, California, April 4–May 28, 1978.
Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, American Impressionism, January 3–March 2, 1980, p. 67 ill. in color, as Meadow Flowers. Traveled to: Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, March 9–May 4, 1980; Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, May 16–June 22, 1980; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, July 1–August 31, 1980.
Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey, Down Garden Paths: The Floral Environment in American Art, October 1–November 30, 1983, p. 112, as Meadow Flowers. Traveled to: Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, December 13, 1983–February 12, 1984; Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, March 1–May 27, 1984.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Reflections of Nature: Flowers in American Art, March 1–May 20, 1984, as Meadow Flowers.
Spanierman Gallery, New York, In the Sunlight: The Floral and Figurative Art of J. H. Twachtman, May 10–June 10, 1989. (Exhibition catalogue: Boyle 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Gerdts 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Spanierman 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Peters 1989–II); (Exhibition catalogue: Peters 1989–III), no. 1, as Meadow Flowers.
Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation, Villa Favorita, Lugano-Castagnola, Switzerland, Masterworks of American Impressionism, July 22–October 28, 1990, no. 30, pp. 82–83 ill. in color, 157, as Meadow Flowers.
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist, February 26–May 21, 2000. (Peters 1999–I), no. 39, as Meadow Flowers. Traveled to: Cincinnati Art Museum, June 6–September 5, 1999; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, October 16, 1999–January 2, 2000.
National Academy of Design, New York, The Cos Cob Art Colony: Impressionists on the Connecticut Shore, February 13–May 13, 2001. (Larkin 2001–I), as Meadow Flowers (Golden Rod and Wild Aster), shown only in New York. Traveled to: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, June 17–September 16, 2001; Denver Art Museum, October 27, 2001–January 20, 2002.
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, The Artist's Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, February 13–May 24, 2015, no. 46, pp. 14–15, 176–77, ill. in color, as Meadow Flowers (Golden Rod and Wild Aster). Traveled to: Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia, June 16–September 6, 2015; Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, October 1, 2015–January 3, 2016; The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California, January 23–May 9, 2016; Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut, June 3–September 18, 2016.
Literature
"The American Art Galleries." Standard Union (Brooklyn), May 8, 1893, p. 7, as Golden Rod and Wild Aster.
Private Collection Formed by the Widely Known Amateur William T. Evans. Auction catalogue, March 3–April 2, 1913. New York: American Art Association, 1913, lot 135, as Meadow Flowers.
MacChesney, Clara T. "Ten American Artists: Each One Has a Special Room for an Exhibition at the Pan-American." New York Times, August 8, 1915, p. 42, as Meadow Flowers.
Baur, John I. H. "Modern American Painting." Brooklyn Museum Quarterly 23 (January 1936), p. 10 ill. in b/w, 11, as Meadow Flowers.
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. 322 ill. in b/w (fig. 177); vol. 2, p. 549 (catalogue A, no. 177), as Meadow Flowers. (Hale concordance).
Forgey, Benjamin. "American Impressionism—from the Vital to the Academic." Art News 72 (October 1973), p. 24 ill. in color, as Meadow Flowers.
Boyle, Richard. John Twachtman. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1979, pp. 52–53 ill. in color, 54, as Meadow Flowers.
Brooklyn Museum. The Brooklyn Museum: American Paintings. New York: Brooklyn Museum, 1979, p. 115 ill. in b/w, as Meadow Flowers.
Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. Seattle: Henry Art Gallery, 1980. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 67, 139 ill. in color, as Meadow Flowers.
Gerdts, William H. Painters of the Humble Truth: Masterpieces of American Still Life, 1801-1939. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1981, p. 222 ill. in b/w (fig. 9.7), as Meadow Flowers.
Gerdts, William H. Down Garden Paths: The Floral Environment in American Art. Montclair, New Jersey: Montclair Art Museum, 1983. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 80, 112, 138, ill. in b/w, as Meadow Flowers.
Foshay, Ella M. Reflections of Nature: Flowers in American Art. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984. Exhibition catalogue, p. 144 ill. in color, as Meadow Flowers.
Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. New York: Abbeville, 1984, p. 112 ill. in color, as Meadow Flowers.
Rosenblum, Robert, and H. W. Jansen. Nineteenth Century Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1984, p. 451 ill. in b/w, as Meadow Flowers.
Boyle, Richard J. "John H. Twachtman's Mastery of Method." In In the Sunlight: The Floral and Figurative Art of J. H. Twachtman, Lisa N. Peters et al. Exhibition catalogue (1989 Spanierman), pp. 45 ill. in color, detail (fig. 31), 49 ill. in color, detail (fig. 35), as Meadow Flowers.
Gerdts, William H. "'Like Dreams of Flowers.'" In In the Sunlight: The Floral and Figurative Art of J. H. Twachtman, by Lisa N. Peters et al. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 1989. Exhibition catalogue (1989 Spanierman), p. 29, as Meadow Flowers.
Peters, Lisa N. "Twachtman's Greenwich Garden." In In the Sunlight: The Floral and Figurative Art of J. H. Twachtman, by Lisa N. Peters et al. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 1989. Exhibition catalogue (1989 Spanierman), p. 15, as Golden Rod and Wild Aster.
Peters, Lisa N. "Catalogue." In In the Sunlight: The Floral and Figurative Art of J.H. Twachtman, by Lisa N. Peters et al. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 1989. Exhibition catalogue (1989 Spanierman), pp. 56–57 ill. in color, as Meadow Flowers.
Gerdts, William H. Masterworks of American Impressionism. Lugano-Castagnola, Switzerland: Fondazione Thyssen-Bornemisza, 1990. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 82–83 ill. in color, 157, as Meadow Flowers.
Hiesinger, Ulrich. Impressionism in America: The Ten American Painters. Munich: Prestel, 1991, p. 121 ill. in color, as Meadow Flowers.
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, pp. 358, 495; vol. 2, p. 893 ill. in b/w (fig. 379), as Meadow Flowers.
Peters, Lisa N. John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist. Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 1999. Exhibition catalogue (1999 High Museum of Art), pp. 123, 129 ill. in color, as Meadow Flowers.
Larkin, Susan G. The Cos Cob Art Colony: Impressionists on the Connecticut Shore. New York: National Academy of Design in association with Yale University, 2001. Exhibition catalogue (2001 National Academy of Design), pp. 188, 190 ill. in color, 191, as Meadow Flowers.
Gerdts, William H. The Golden Age of American Impressionism. New York: Watson-Guptill, 2003, pp. 13, 67, 69 ill. in color, as Meadow Flowers.
Carbone, Teresa. American Paintings in the Brooklyn Museum: Artists Born by 1876. Brooklyn: Brooklyn Museum, 2006, pp. 1023 ill. in b/w, 1024, as Meadow Flowers.
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. 63–64 ill. in color (fig. 57), 72, 138, as Meadow Flowers (Golden Rod and Wild Aster).
Commentary
This painting was shown as Golden Rod and Wild Aster in the exhibition of work by Twachtman, Julian Alden Weir, Claude Monet, and Paul-Albert Besnard, held at the American Art Galleries in May–September 1893. Painting the scene from an overhead angle, Twachtman eliminated scale and place, enticing the viewer into an experience of the sensuousness of the blossoms in an atmosphere of light and breeze. The title he gave to the work suggests that the image is of wildflowers, in which he captured the radiating spread of golden-yellow goldenrod and the lavender clusters of star-shaped wild aster, both perennials that bloomed late in the summer, especially in New England.
The work belonged to the artist’s wife, Martha, until 1908, when she sold it to the Irish-born businessman and collector of American Art, William T. Evans. According to Teresa Carbone (Carbone 2006), it was most likely Evans who purchased the work's opulent frame, designed by the architect Stanford White, in which the painting remains. Carbone notes: "The gilded, outward-sloping molding with a relief pattern of parallel acanthus was one of a number of frames that Evans commissioned for works by Twachtman and his contemporaries.”
The painting was included in the 1913 sale of Evans’s collection, where it was purchased with the help of Robert Woodward for the Brooklyn Museum. In 1915 it was among a group of works by Twachtman set aside in a gallery of its own at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco.
External Links
- Museum website (brooklynmuseum.org)