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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
Hemlock Pool, ca. 1895–99 (OP.1113). Fig. 1. Hemlock Pool on Horseneck Brook, Greenwich, Connecticut, 2021
Fig. 1. Hemlock Pool on Horseneck Brook, Greenwich, Connecticut, 2021
Image: Lisa N. Peters
Keywords
OP.1113
Hemlock Pool
Alternate titles: November Pool; The Hemlock Pool
ca. 1895–99
Oil on canvas
29 13/16 x 24 13/16 in. (75.8 x 63.1 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman–
Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, Anonymous Donor (1928.34)
Provenance
Acquired from the artist or his estate by John Gellatly, New York, 1902;
to Violet Twachtman Baker, the artist's daughter, 1925;
to (Macbeth, 1927);
anonymous gift to present collection, 1928.
Exhibitions
1900 Ten American Painters
Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, Exhibition of Paintings, Ten American Painters, March 17–31, 1900, as The Hemlock Pool.
1900–II St. Botolph Club
St. Botolph Club, Boston, Exhibition of Paintings: Ten American Painters, April 16–30, 1900, no. 23, as Hemlock Pool.
1901 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Seventieth Annual Exhibition, January 14–February 23, 1901, no. 61, as Hemlock Pool.
1901–I Durand-Ruel
Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, Paintings and Pastels by John H. Twachtman, March 4–16, 1901, as Hemlock Pool.
1901 Pan-American Exposition probably
Buffalo Department of Fine Arts, New York, Exhibition of Fine Arts, Pan-American Exposition, May 1–November 2, 1901, no. 774, as The Hemlock Pool.
1907–I Lotos Club
Lotos Club, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by the Late John H. Twachtman, January 5–31, 1907, no. 15, as The Hemlock Pool, lent by John Gellatly.
1913 Armory Show
69th Infantry Armory, New York, International Exhibition of Modern Art, Association of American Painters and Sculptors, February 15–March 15, 1913, no. 733, as Hemlock Pool, lent by John Gellatly, Esq.
1932 Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art, New York, American Painting and Sculpture 1862–1932, October 31, 1932–October 31, 1933, no. 103, p. 39 ill. in b/w, as Hemlock Pool.
1937 Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum, New York, Leaders of American Impressionism: Mary Cassatt, Childe Hassam, John H. Twachtman, and J. Alden Weir, October 17–November 28, 1937, no. 71, as The Hemlock Pool, lent by the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover.
1940 World's Fair
World's Fair, New York, European and American Paintings, 1500-1900, May–October 1940, no. 313, as Hemlock Pool.
1941 Fogg Art Museum
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, American Landscape Painting: George Inness to George Bellows, May 5–31, 1941, no. 14, as Hemlock Pool.
1942–II Cincinnati Art Museum
Cincinnati Art Museum, A Retrospect Exhibition Organized from the Armory Show of 1913, March 18, 1942–April 16, 1943, no. 36, as Hemlock Pool.
1949 Milch
Milch Galleries, New York, Paintings by John H. Twachtman, November 14–December 3, 1949, no. 1, as Hemlock Pool.
1950 Stedelijk Museum
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Modern American Painters, June 15–September 15, 1950, no. 11, as Hemlock Pool.
1952 Century Association
Century Association, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by Abbott Thayer and John H. Twachtman, March 5–May 4, 1952, as Hemlock Pool.
1953 Wildenstein Gallery
Wildenstein Gallery, New York, Landmarks in American Art, 1670-1950, February 26–March 28, 1953, as Hemlock Pool.
1955 American Academy of Arts & Letters
American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, An Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture Commemorating the Armory Show of 1913 and the First Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in 1917 with Works by Members Who Exhibited There, December 1955, no. 5, as Hemlock Pool.
1958 Amherst College
Amherst College, Departments of Fine Art and American Studies, Massachusetts, The 1913 Armory Show in Retrospect, February 17–March 17, 1958, no. 57, p. 33 ill. in b/w, as Hemlock Pool.
1959 American Academy of Arts and Letters
American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, The Impressionist Mood in American Painting, January 16–February 15, 1959, no. 22, as Hemlock Pool.
1963 Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute
Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, 1913 Armory Show: Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition, February 12–March 31, 1963, no. 733, p. 131 ill. in b/w, as Hemlock Pool.
1966 Cincinnati Art Museum
Cincinnati Art Museum, John Henry Twachtman: A Retrospective Exhibition, October 7–November 20, 1966. (Exhibition catalogue: Baskett 1966); (Exhibition catalogue: Boyle 1966–I), no. 71, p. 27 ill. in b/w, as Hemlock Pool, lent by the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts.
1972 Wellesley College Museum
Wellesley College Museum, Massachusetts, American Landscape Painting of the Nineteenth Century, December 1, 1972–January 15, 1973, no. 44, as Hemlock Pool.
1980 Hurlbutt Gallery
William Benton Museum, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut and American Impressionism, March 20–May 31, 1980, no. 145, pp. 23 ill. in color, 145, as Hemlock Pool.
1981 Addison Gallery
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, American Impressionism, February 13–March 8, 1981, as Hemlock Pool.
1981 Hirschl & Adler Galleries
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, Masterworks of American Art from the Addison Gallery Collection, October 6–13, 1981, no. 69, as Hemlock Pool.
1984 Nassau County Museum
Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn, New York, The Shock of Modernism in America: Artists of the Armory Show and The Eight, April 29–July 29, 1984, no. 6, p. 9 ill. in b/w, as Hemlock Pool.
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. 5, p. 93 ill. in color, as Hemlock Pool. Traveled to: Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, March 18–May 20, 1990.
1999 High Museum of Art
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist, February 26–May 21, 2000. (Peters 1999–I), no. 44, as Hemlock Pool. Traveled to: Cincinnati Art Museum, June 6–September 5, 1999; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, October 16, 1999–January 2, 2000.
2001 National Academy of Design
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 Hemlock Pool. Traveled to: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, June 17–September 16, 2001; Denver Art Museum, October 27, 2001–January 20, 2002.
2014 New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society, New York, The Armory Show at 100: Modernism and Revolution, October 11, 2014–February 23, 2015, as Hemlock Pool.
2022 Greenwich Historical Society
Greenwich Historical Society, Cos Cob, Connecticut, Life and Art: The Greenwich Paintings of John Henry Twachtman, October 19, 2022–January 22, 2023. (Peters 2021–II), no. 9, as Hemlock Pool.
Literature
Artist 1900
"Third Annual Exhibition of the Ten American Painters." Artist 27 (May 1900), p. xxviii, as Hemlock Pool.
Caffin 1900
Caffin, C[harles] H. "Third Exhibition of the 'Ten American Painters.'" Harper's Weekly 44 (April 14, 1900), p. 338 ill. in b/w, as Hemlock Pool.
Du Bois 1900
Du Bois, Henri Pené. "Du Bois Says: The Show of the Ten American Painters is Intensely Modern." New York Journal, March 19, 1900, p. 6, as Hemlock Pool.
Mail and Express 1900
"Art Notes: Ten American Painters and their Third Annual Exhibition at the Durand-Ruel Gallery." Mail and Express (New York), March 21, 1900, p. 9, as Hemlock Pool.
New York Times 1900
"The Week in Art." New York Times, March 17, 1900, p. 174, as Hemlock Pool.
New-York Tribune 1900
"Art Exhibitions: The 'Ten American Painters.'" New-York Tribune, March 17, 1900, p. 8, as Hemlock Pool.
Sun 1900
"Art Notes: Ten American Painters Exhibition at the Durand-Ruel Gallery." Sun (New York), March 20, 1900, p. 6, as Hemlock Pool.
Boston Evening Transcript 1901–I
"The Fine Arts: the Pennsylvania Academy." Boston Evening Transcript, January 19, 1901, as Hemlock Pool.
New York Times 1901–I
"A Trio of Painters: Pictures by Three Americans in Three Fifth Avenue Galleries." New York Times, March 7, 1901, p. 8, as Hemlock Pool.
Boston Evening Transcript 1901–II
"Sales from the Pennsylvania Academy Exhibition." Boston Evening Transcript, March 9, 1901, as Hemlock Pool.
Caffin 1907–II
Caffin, Charles H. The Story of American Painting: The Evolution of Painting in America from Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1907, p. 283 ill. in b/w, as Hemlock Pool.
de Kay 1918
de Kay, Charles. "John H. Twachtman." Arts and Decoration 9 (June 1918), p. 73, as Hemlock Pool.
Mase 1921
Mase, Carolyn C. "John H. Twachtman." International Studio 72 (January 1921), p. lxxiv, as Hemlock Pool.
Clark 1924
Clark, Eliot. John Twachtman. New York: privately printed, 1924, pp. 30 ill. in b/w, 48–49, as Hemlock Pool.
Jackman 1928
Jackman, Rilla Evelyn. American Arts. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1928, p. 164 ill. in b/w, as Hemlock Pool.
LaFollette 1929
LaFollette, Suzanne. Art in America. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1929, p. 206 ill. in b/w, as Hemlock Pool.
Tucker 1931
Tucker, Allen. John H. Twachtman. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1931, pp. 18–19 ill. in b/w, as Hemlock Pool.
Cahill and Barr 1934
Cahill, Holger and Alfred H. Barr. Art in America. New York: Halcyon House, 1934, p. 86 ill. in b/w, as Hemlock Pool.
Burroughs 1936
Burroughs, Alan. Limners and Likenesses: Three Centuries of American Painting. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1936, p. 179, as Hemlock Pool.
Sweeney 1938
Sweeney, J[ames] J[ohnson]. "L'art contemporain aux États-Unis." Cahiers d'Art 13 (1938), p. 54 ill. in b/w, as Hemlock Pool.
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. 552–53 (catalogue A, no. 255a), as Hemlock Pool. (Hale concordance).
Novak 1969
Novak, Barbara. American Painting of the Nineteenth Century: Realism, Idealism, and the American Experience. New York: Praeger, 1969, p. 245 ill. in b/w (fig. 14–9), as Hemlock Pool.
Brown 1977
Brown, Milton W. American Art to 1900. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1977, p. 85 ill. in color, as Hemlock Pool.
Boyle 1978
Boyle, Richard J. "John H. Twachtman: An Appreciation." American Art & Antiques 1 (November–December 1978), p. 74, as Hemlock Pool.
Boyle 1979
Boyle, Richard. John Twachtman. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1979, pp. 70–71 ill. in color, as Hemlock Pool.
Schwartz 1984
Schwartz, Constance H. The Shock of Modernism: The Eight and the Artists of the Armory Show. Roslyn Harbor, N.Y.: Nassau County Museum of Fine Art, 1984. Exhibition catalogue, p. 9, as Hemlock Pool.
Greenwood 1989
Greenwood, Douglas McCreary. "Yankee Impressions." Museum and Arts Washington 5 (November–December 1989), p. 44 ill. in color, as Hemlock Pool.
Pyne 1989
Pyne, Kathleen A. "John Twachtman and the Therapeutic Landscape." 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), p. 61, as Hemlock Pool.
Richard 1989
Richard, Paul. "John Twachtman's Scenes of Silence: At the National Gallery, Meditations on the Landscape." Washington Post, October 22, 1989, p. G10, as Hemlock Pool.
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. 18 ill. in color (detail), 19, as Hemlock Pool.
Perlman 1990
Perlman, Bennard. "National Gallery Exhibit Shows Two Sides of the Same Subject." Baltimore Daily Record, January 17, 1990, p. A32, as Hemlock Pool.
Gerdts 1990–VI
Gerdts, William H. "The Ten: A Critical Chronology." In Ten American Painters, by William H. Gerdts et al. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 1990. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 18–19 ill. in color, 131, as Hemlock Pool.
Prebus 1994
Prebus, Cynthia H. "Transitions in American Art and Criticism: The Formative Years of Early American Modernism, 1895–1905," Ph.D dissertation. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers, The State University, 1994, pp. 132–33, 260, 263, 265, 267, 269, 459 ill. in b/w, as Hemlock Pool.
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, pp. 339, 384, 393, 495; vol. 2, p. 931 ill. in b/w (fig. 417), as Hemlock Pool.
Faxon, Berman, and Reynolds 1996
Faxon, Susan C., Avis Berman, and Jock Reynolds. Addison Gallery of American Art: 65 Years—A Selective Catalogue. Andover, Mass.: Addison Gallery of American Art, 1996, pp. 31, 204 ill. in color, 483 ill. in color, 484, as Hemlock Pool.
Peters 1999–I
Peters, Lisa N. John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist. Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 1999. Exhibition catalogue (1999 High Museum of Art), pp. 135–36 ill. in color, as Hemlock Pool.
May 2000–I
May, Stephen. "Expressing the Inexpressible." American Artist (February 2000), p. 26 ill. in color, as Hemlock Pool.
Larkin 2001–I
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. 200, 203 ill. in color, as Hemlock Pool.
Larkin 2001–III
Larkin, Susan G. "Japanism in the Cos Cob Art Colony." Antiques 159 (March 2001), p. 458 ill. in color, as Hemlock Pool.
Peters 2006–III
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. 70 ill. in color (fig. 62), 72, as Hemlock Pool.
Butler 2019
Butler, Eliza. "John Henry Twachtman and the Materiality of Snow." American Art 33 (Fall 2019), pp. 79–80 ill. in color, 83, 87, as Hemlock Pool.
Sharp 2020
Sharp, Kevin. "Independence and the Durability of American Impressionism." In America's Impressionism: Echoes of a Revolution, Amanda C. Burdan, ed. Memphis, Tenn.: Dixon Gallery and Gardens. Exhibition catalogue (2021–22 Dixon Gallery and Gardens), pp. 113–14 ill. in color (fig. 6), as Hemlock Pool.
Peters 2021–II
Peters, Lisa N. Life and Art: The Greenwich Paintings of John Henry Twachtman. Cos Cob, Conn.: Greenwich Historical Society, 2021. Exhibition catalogue (2022 Greenwich Historical Society), pp. 54–55 ill. in color (fig. 38), 56, 105 ill. in color, as Hemlock Pool.
Peters 2021–III
Peters, Lisa N. "The Greenwich Paintings of John Henry Twachtman." American Art Review 33 (Fall 2021), pp. 74 ill. in color, 78, as Hemlock Pool.
Johnson 2022
Johnson, Kate Eagen. "Life and Art: The Greenwich Paintings of John Henry Twachtman." Antiques and the Arts Weekly (November 1, 2022), ill. in color, as Hemlock Pool.
Commentary

Eliot Clark described this image of Hemlock Pool (see fig. 1) as an autumnal scene, but it more likely depicts the locale in early spring. The trees are bare and the snow has receded to the edges of the pool on Horseneck Brook and to patches throughout the landscape. The raw, moist ground has no evidence of new growth, implying that the snow has only recently melted. Twachtman viewed the site from below, creating a gradual upward movement toward the distance that draws the viewer more actively into the landscape than in Winter Harmony (OP.1112), another Hemlock Pool image. 

As Clark noted, Twachtman considered Hemlock Pool to be “one of his best canvases.” This is borne out by many times he exhibited it. The title was first listed in 1900 in the third exhibition of the Ten American Painters. A review by Charles Caffin in Harper’s Weekly illustrates the present image. Twachtman also exhibited Hemlock Pool at the Carnegie Annual of 1899–1900 and at the seventieth annual of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, January–February 1901. This painting was probably also the pool scene Twachtman featured in his March 1901 exhibition at New York’s Durand-Ruel Gallery, which a New York Times reviewer praised: “To see him at his best is to look at the ‘Hemlock Pool,’ with slopes all snowy, but set with brown bushes and trees and the water of the brook fringed with white ice. Perhaps we have no other painter who quite equals Twachtman in understanding the beauty of Winter in the Northern States. Such a picture as this is free from the charge of cottony snow. It lies firm, though not hard, and is quite another thing from the snows of cloudland.” The painting can be presumed to have also been Hemlock Pool in the continuation of the exhibition at the Cincinnati Art Museum. The Cincinnati exhibition lasted from April 12 until May 16, but Hemlock Pool was probably among a group of works that were taken down from the show early so that they could be included in the Pan-American Exposition, which opened May 1, 1901 in Buffalo.

The painting’s first owner was the prominent collector and friend of the artist, John Gellatly who, according to the archives of Macbeth Gallery, “bought it either as a purchase or in cancellation of a debt shortly before or after Twachtman’s death in 1902.”[1] Gellatly lent the painting to the 1907 Twachtman memorial exhibition at the Lotos Club and to the Armory Show in 1913. It remained in Gellatly’s hands until 1925, when he gave it back to the artist’s daughter, Violet. She sold it two years later through Macbeth to Mr. Thomas Cochran, who purchased it for the Addison Gallery in 1928. Subsequently the painting has been in several significant exhibitions, including Leaders of Impressionism at the Brooklyn Museum in 1937, the New York World’s Fair of 1940, and solo exhibitions of Twachtman’s work in 1949, 1966, and 1999.

[1] Archives of American Art, roll 2564, frame 243.

Selected Literature

From Caffin 1900

when seen at a proper distance, the painting is delicate beyond description in atmosphere, color, and sentiment. 

From Artist 1900

None of our landscape-painters surpasses J. H. Twachtman in the subtle delineation of atmospheric effects and values generally; qualities well represented on this occasion in “The Brook in Winter” [OP.1000] and “The Hemlock Pool.” In both the broad and rugged aspects of the scene are faithfully reproduced, and then stealing over all is the suggestion of suspended animation, the still torpor of winter. They are canvases of remarkable beauty and most superior accomplishment.

From Boston Evening Transcript 1901

Mr. Twachtman sends two phases of the same brook one a pool in a little gorge, the other where it emerges into meadows [OP.1000]. With the utmost sketchiness, these give a convincing feeling of winter, in the snowbound edges of the brook, the shivering reflection of some slender birches, and the ground broken by crystals of frost.

From de Kay 1918

another of the capital snowscenes in the Gellatly group. The sensitiveness of his brushwork, the delicacy of his color scheme, the reserve, the fastidiousness of his interpretation of nature are never better seen than in these little songs in celebration of the Atlantic coastal winter.  

From Clark 1924

Typical of the late autumn season and the artist’s mood is the “Hemlock Pool.” Twachtman considered it one of his best canvases. Without aiming at the poetic, it is imbued with the essence of poetry; without thinking of picture making, the painter has revealed the picturesque. Simple, suggestive and serene, the “Hemlock Pool” is a magical revelation of hidden beauty, made apparent by the sympathetic eye of the painter. Painted just below the artist’s house, a supreme characterization of a local situation, the picture makes, nevertheless, a universal appeal.

From Boyle 1979

The shapes of Hemlock Pool emerge as the snow recedes with the coming of warmer weather. . . . Although the picture is strong, it is also low-key; its subtle relationships and quiet brown tonalities were outshouted by the noisy color and violent abstractions of the European modernists in [the Armory Show]. When the furor over Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase had died down, a little of American art died with it. In the ensuing scramble to come to terms with the new modernism, the pursuit of a quiet observation of fact within the framework of an idealistic, contemplative, and romantic vision of nature as represented by a painting such as Hemlock Pool was lost [p. 70].