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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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Additional Images
Waterfall, Yellowstone, ca. 1895 (OP.1305). Fig. 1. Lower Falls of the Yellowstone, west of Lookout Point, June 2022
Fig. 1. Lower Falls of the Yellowstone, west of Lookout Point, June 2022
Image: Lisa N. Peters
Related Work
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Keywords
OP.1305
Waterfall, Yellowstone
Alternate titles: Hemlock Pool; Hemlock Pool: A Waterfall; Lower Falls, Yellowstone Park
ca. 1895
Oil on canvas
30 1/8 x 25 1/8 in. (76.5 x 63.8 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman–
Private collection
Image: Roz Akin
Provenance
Samuel T. Shaw;
to (American Art Association, New York, Shaw sale, January 21–22, 1926, lot 177, as Hemlock Pool );
to (Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries, New York);
to Arthur G. Altschul, New York, 1953;
to (Chapellier Galleries, New York, 1959);
to Joseph H. Hirshhorn, New York, 1959;
gift to Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1966;
to (Sotheby's, New York, December 4, 2002, lot 25);
to (Spanierman, 2002);
to (Doyle, New York, May 8, 2013, lot 265);
to present collection, 2013.
Exhibitions
1974 Hirshhorn Museum
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., Inaugural Exhibition, October 1, 1974–September 15, 1975, as Hemlock Pool: A Waterfall.
1980 Terra Museum of American Art
Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, Treasures from the Hirshhorn, July 29–September 30, 1980, no. 6, as Hemlock Pool: A Waterfall.
2006 Spanierman
Spanierman Gallery, New York, John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter," May 4–June 24, 2006. (Nelson 2006); (Parkes 2006); (Peters 2006–I); (Peters 2006–II); (Peters 2006–III); (Peters 2006–IV), no. 52, pp. 182–83 ill. in color, as Waterfall, Yellowstone. Traveled to: Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, July 13–October 29, 2006.
Literature
American Art Galleries 1926
The Samuel T. Shaw Collection. Auction catalogue, January 21–22, 1926. New York: American Art Galleries, 1926, lot 177 ill. in b/w, as Hemlock Pool.
Art News 1926–I
"New York Auctions: Samuel T. Shaw Paintings." Art News 24 (January 30, 1926), p. 12, as Waterfall, Yellowstone.
Art News 1926–II
"Collector Acquires Three Paintings by American Masters." Art News 21 (March 31, 1926), p. 1, as Waterfall, Yellowstone.
American Art Journal 1927
"Paintings Sold at Auction." American Art Journal 23 (1927), p. 364, as Waterfall, Yellowstone.
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, pp. 254, 258 ill. in b/w (fig. 52); vol. 2, p. 581 (catalogue A, no. 778), as Waterfall, Yellowstone. (Hale concordance).
Lerner et al. 1974
Lerner, Abram et al. The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. New York: Abrams, 1974, p. 46 ill. in b/w, as Waterfall, Yellowstone.
Sotheby's New York 2002–II
American Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture. Auction catalogue, December 4, 2002. New York: Sotheby's, 2002, lot 25 ill. in color, as Waterfall, Yellowstone.
Peters 2006–IV
Peters, Lisa N. "Catalogue." In John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter", by Lisa N. Peters. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Spanierman), pp. 182–83 ill. in color, as Waterfall, Yellowstone.
Doyle 2013–I
European, American, Modern, and Contemporary Art. Auction catalogue, May 8, 2013. New York: Doyle, 2013, lot 265 ill. in color, as Waterfall, Yellowstone.
Peters 2024
Peters, Lisa N. "John Twachtman: An American Impressionist's Yellowstone." Montana: The Magazine of Western History 74 (Autumn 2024), pp. 15 ill. in color, 20, as Waterfall, Yellowstone.
Commentary

Twachtman indicated in a letter he sent on September 22, 1895 to William Wadsworth (who funded his trip to Yellowstone), that he looked forward to visiting the Lower Yellowstone Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.[1]  This painting and Lower Falls of Yellowstone (OP.1304) were the result. Here he appears to have propped his canvas over the rocks, cropping the scene more closely than in Lower Falls of Yellowstone, but still looking down on the falls (fig. 1). The spontaneity of his paint handling indicates his rapid recording of the scene, and he accentuated the dramatic contrast between the blue-green river flowing unsuspectingly through the canyon on a gradual descent and the sudden drop of the water over the edge of the cliff as it plummets with ferocity—and what have must been deafening sound—over the steep rock walls. Twachtman captured how the brilliant sunlit pinks and yellows in the rocks were reflected in the whites of the rushing movement of the falls.

The first owner of this painting was the real estate magnate and art collector Samuel T. Shaw (1861–1945), who funded yearly prizes at many New York clubs and organizations and knew many artists in Twachtman's circle, such as Theodore Robinson. Shaw perhaps purchased the canvas directly from Twachtman.[2] In the sale of Shaw's collection in 1926, this painting was titled Hemlock Pool, even though articles that year referred to it as Waterfall, Yellowstone and the subject is clearly the latter rather than the Hemlock Pool on Horseneck Brook in Greenwich. In 1957, Hale catalogued the work as Waterfall, Yellowstone. However, after the painting entered the collection of Joseph Hirshhorn in 1959, it began to be known by a combined title of Hemlock Pool: A Waterfall. At the time Hirshhorn lived in Greenwich, and perhaps he wished the painting to be a Greenwich subject. It seems likely that the use of "Hemlock Pool" for the work in the Shaw collection had simply been an error that became perpetuated. The site is along the Northern Rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, west of Lookout Point (fig. 1). Twachtman cropped the composition severely making the falls a shape of its own interlocked into the arrangement. He painted in an animated sketch-like manner to express the force of the cascade with the movement of his brush. 

[1] John H. Twachtman to William A. Wadsworth, September 22, 1895.

[2] Shaw is mentioned in several entries in the diary of Theodore Robinson. Frick Art Reference Library, New York.