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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Catalogue Entry

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Keywords
OP.1126
Horseneck Falls
1890s
Oil on canvas
30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman–
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876–1967), New York, 1967 (67.187.142)
Exhibitions
1913 New York School of Applied Design for Women
New York School of Applied Design for Women, Fifty Paintings by the Late John H. Twachtman, January 15–February 15, 1913, no. 3, as Horseneck Falls, lent by Estate of J. H. Twachtman.
1913–I Albright Art Gallery
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, Paintings and Pastels by the Late John H. Twachtman, March 11–April 2, 1913, no. 2, as Horseneck Falls, lent by Estate of J. H. Twachtman.
1919 Macbeth
Macbeth Gallery, New York, Paintings by John H. Twachtman, January 1919, no. 5, p. 10 ill. in b/w, as Horseneck Falls.
1949 Milch
Milch Galleries, New York, Paintings by John H. Twachtman, November 14–December 3, 1949, no. 9, cover ill. in b/w, as Horseneck Falls.
1966 Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, American Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, June 3–July 31, 1966, no. 110, n.p. ill. in b/w, as Horseneck Falls. Traveled to: M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, August 16–October 16, 1966.
Literature
Buffalo Fine Arts Academy 1913
Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. "Memorial Exhibition of the Works of John H. Twachtman." Albright Academy Notes 8 (April 1913), pp. 66–67 ill. in b/w, as Horseneck Falls.
Britton 1919
Britton, James. "Exhibition Now On: Twachtmans at Macbeth's." American Art News 17 (January 11, 1919), p. 2, as Horseneck Falls.
Macbeth Gallery Art Notes 1919
Macbeth Gallery Art Notes 67 (January 1919), p. 1109, as Horseneck Falls.
Phillips 1919
Phillips, Duncan. "Twachtman—An Appreciation." International Studio 66 (February 1919), p. cvii ill. in b/w, as Horseneck Falls.
Parke-Bernet 1948–II
Whittemore Estate. Auction catalogue, May 20, 1948. New York: Parke-Bernet, 1948, lot 183, as Horseneck Falls.
Reed 1949
Reed, Judith Kaye. "Twachtman's Sensitive Poetry." Art Digest 24 (November 15, 1949), p. 17 ill. in b/w, as Horseneck Falls.
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. 2, p. 547–48 (catalogue A, no. 159), as Horseneck Falls. (Hale concordance).
Burke 1980
Burke, Doreen Bolger. American Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 3 Volumes. A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born between 1846 and 1864. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980, pp. 151 ill. in b/w, 152, as Horseneck Falls.
Peters 1989–I
Peters, Lisa N. "Twachtman's Greenwich Paintings: Context and Chronology." In John Twachtman: Connecticut Landscapes, by Deborah Chotner, Lisa N. Peters, and Kathleen A. Pyne. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1989. Exhibition catalogue (1989–II National Gallery of Art), pp. 35 ill. in b/w, 36, as Horseneck Falls.
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. 381; vol. 2, p. 926 ill. in b/w (fig. 412), as Horseneck Falls.
Commentary

In viewing Horseneck Falls from below and using a vertical format, Twachtman endowed the meandering brook and falls with a grandeur beyond its actual scale, creating a dynamic upward movement within the picture plane. In reality, the cascade dropped about six feet and was just a few steps to the northwest of his home in Greenwich, Connecticut. Twachtman’s earthy greens and blues suggest that the painting was rendered early in his Greenwich years, before he had fully embraced a palette of more vibrant complementary hues.

This painting remained in artist’s estate until at least 1913. It was lent by the estate that year to  exhibitions of Twachtman’s work at the New York School of Applied Design and at the Buffalo Fine Arts Gallery. The work then entered the collection of an individual named G. D. McDonough. The painting was included in an exhibition in 1919 at Macbeth Gallery. Afterward, it was returned to McDonough, who sold it in 1920 to Harris E. Whittemore (1864–1927), president of Eastern Malleable Iron Company of Naugatuck, Connecticut, and the director of the Waterbury, Connecticut, Hospital and the Westover School Corporation, Middlebury, Connecticut. The painting remained in Whittemore’s estate from the time of his death in 1927 until 1948, when it was included in the Whittemore Estate Sale at Parke-Bernet, New York. From the sale, it was purchased by Milch Galleries. A year later it was acquired from Milch by Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876–1967), a New York painter, art collector, and philanthropist, who was the daughter of a China trade ship owner. De Groot bequeathed the painting, along with works by other American Impressionists—including Childe Hassam and Maurice Prendergast—to the Metropolitan.

Selected Literature

From Parke-Bernet 1948

A cascading blue stream flowing over gray rocks, rushing into the foreground, before a view of a waterfall, the foaming water fanning out over a plateau of rocks before entering the pool. High horizon beneath a clear blue sky.