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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
OP.995
The Snow Bound Stream
Alternate titles: Frozen Brook; Snowbound Stream
Late 1890s
Oil on canvas
30 x 30 in. (76.2 x 76.2 cm)
Stamped lower left: Twachtman Sale [1903 estate sale]
The Warner Foundation, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Provenance
(American Art Galleries, New York, Twachtman estate sale, March 24, 1903, no. 51);
to C. Elliot;
(Knoedler);
(Frank K. M. Rehn, 1924);
to J. K. Newman, 1924;
to (American Art Association—Anderson Galleries, New York, Newman sale, December 6, 1935, lot 9, as Frozen Brook);
to (Robert J. Levy);
to J. K. Newman Jr.;
(Berry-Hill Galleries, New York);
to present collection, 1980.
Exhibitions
1903–I American Art Galleries
American Art Galleries, New York, Sale of the Work of the Late John H. Twachtman, exhibition and auction, March 19–24, 1903, no. 51, as The Snow Bound Stream.
1968 Spanierman
Ira Spanierman, New York, John Henry Twachtman, 1853–1902: An Exhibition of Paintings and Pastels, February 3–24, 1968, no. 22, as The Snow Bound Stream.
1989–II National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., District of Columbia, John Twachtman: Connecticut Landscapes, October 15, 1989–January 28, 1990. (Exhibition catalogue: Chotner 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Pyne 1989); (Exhibition catalogue: Peters 1989–I), no. 9, p. 97 ill. in color, as The Snow Bound Stream. Traveled to: Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, March 18–May 20, 1990.
2016 Questroyal Fine Art
Questroyal Fine Art, New York, Paintings from the Jack Warner Foundation, May 14–June 4, 2016, ill. in color, as Snowbound Stream.
Literature
New York Times 1903–II
"Twachtman's Paintings: Memorial Exhibition and Sale of Works by John H. Twachtman." New York Times, March 22, 1903, p. 9, as The Snow Bound Stream.
Sun 1903–II
"Twachtman Pictures, $16,610." Sun (New York), March 25, 1903, p. 5, as The Snow Bound Stream.
New York Times 1903–III
"Twachtman Picture Sale." New York Times, March 25, 1903, p. 5, as The Snow Bound Stream.
American Art Association—Anderson Galleries 1935–II
The J. K. Newman Collection of Important Paintings by American and French XIX–XX Century Artists. Auction catalogue, December 6, 1935. New York: American Art Association—Anderson Galleries, 1935, lot 9 ill. in b/w, as Frozen Brook.
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. 570 (catalogue A, no. 562), as The Snow Bound Stream. (Hale concordance).
Art News 1978
Art News 77 (October 1978), p. 158 ill. in b/w, as The Snow Bound Stream.
Armstrong 2001
Armstrong, Tom. An American Odyssey: The Warner Collection of American Fine and Decorative Arts, Gulf States Paper Corporation. Tuscaloosa, Ala.: Gulf States Paper, 2001, p. 154 ill. in color, as The Snow Bound Stream.
Butler 2019
Butler, Eliza. "John Henry Twachtman and the Materiality of Snow." American Art 33 (Fall 2019), pp. 79–80, as Snowbound Stream (misidentified as belonging to the New Britain Museum of American Art).
Commentary

The Snow Bound Stream portrays the hillside to the west of the artist's Greenwich home. The green triangular shape on the upper right is possibly the gable on its western facade. Twachtman depicted the scene from the vantage point he used often, viewing it from below and tilting his picture plane forward. The result carries the viewer’s eye across the surface rather than into the distance, where the vivacity of the work’s prismatic color resonates in a work that at first appears mostly white.

From the artist’s 1903 estate sale at the American Art Galleries, the painting was purchased by C. Elliott, whose identity is unknown. It later belonged to the prominent New York collector J. K. Newman and was sold from Newman’s estate sale to a buyer named Robert J. Levy, who appears to have resold it to Newman’s son.