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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Country House in Winter, Cos Cob, ca. 1901–02 (OP.1504). Fig. 1. Stickland Road, Cos Cob, with the Brush House and its store in the right distance, Greenwich Historical Society archives.
Fig. 1. Stickland Road, Cos Cob, with the Brush House and its store in the right distance, Greenwich Historical Society archives.
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Keywords
OP.1504
Country House in Winter, Cos Cob
Alternate titles: A Country Road; Country House in Winter; Country Road; House in Winter; Old House in Winter
ca. 1901–02
Oil on canvas
25 x 25 in. (63.5 x 63.5 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman
Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, Anonymous Donor (1931.14)
Exhibitions
1922–I Macbeth
Macbeth Gallery, New York, Twelfth Annual Exhibition: Thirty Paintings by Thirty Artists, January 24–February 13, 1922, no. 27, as Old House in Winter.
1933 Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, A Loan Exhibition of Nineteenth Century Paintings from the Addison Gallery of American Art, March 28–April 27, 1933, no. 27, as House in Winter.
1952 Century Association
Century Association, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by Abbott Thayer and John H. Twachtman, March 5–May 4, 1952, as House in Winter, lent by Addison Gallery.
1953 Columbus Gallery
Columbus Gallery of Fine Art, Ohio, Painters of Ohio's Past, June 5–July 5, 1953, no. 33, as Country House in Winter, Cos Cob.
1965 University of New Mexico Art Gallery
University of New Mexico Art Gallery, Albuquerque, Impressionism in America, February 9–March 14, 1965, no. 81, ill. in b/w, as Country House in Winter, Cos Cob. Traveled to: M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, March 30–May 5, 1965.
1970 Indiana University Art Museum
Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, The American Scene 1820–1900, January 18–February 28, 1970, no. 42, p. 28 ill. in b/w, as Country House in Winter, Cos Cob.
1971 Meredith Long Gallery
Meredith Long Gallery, Houston, Americans at Home and Abroad, 1870-1920, March 26–April 9, 1971, no. 27, as Country House in Winter, Cos Cob.
1980 Hurlbutt Gallery
William Benton Museum, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut and American Impressionism, March 20–May 31, 1980, no. 142, pp. 103, 110 ill. in b/w, as Country House in Winter, Cos Cob.
1981 Addison Gallery
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, American Impressionism, February 13–March 8, 1981, as Country House in Winter, Cos Cob.
1981 Hirschl & Adler Galleries
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, Masterworks of American Art from the Addison Gallery Collection, October 6–13, 1981, no. 68, as Country House in Winter, Cos Cob.
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 Country House in Winter, Cos Cob. Traveled to: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, June 17–September 16, 2001; Denver Art Museum, October 27, 2001–January 20, 2002.
Literature
Edgerton 1907
Edgerton, Giles. "Is America Selling Her Birthright for a Mess of Pottage?" Craftsman 11 (March 1907), p. 661, ill. in b/w, as A Country Road.
Lloyd 1907
Lloyd, David. "The Exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy." International Studio 31 (March 1907), p. xxi ill. in b/w, as Country Road.
Macbeth Gallery Art Notes 1922
Macbeth Gallery: Art Notes 74 (January–February 1922), cover ill. in b/w, p. 1259, as Country House in Winter.
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. 555 (catalogue A, no. 290), as Country House in Winter, Cos Cob. (Hale concordance).
Koob 1980
Koob, Pam. "Cos Cob Clapboard School Reborn at Hurlbutt." Greenwich Time Panorama, March 20, 1980, p. 21 ill. in b/w, as Country House in Winter, Cos Cob.
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. 468; vol. 2, p. 975 ill. in b/w (fig. 475), as Country House in Winter, Cos Cob.
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. 483–84 ill. in color, as Country House in Winter, Cos Cob.
Larkin 1996
Larkin, Susan G. "'A Regular Rendezvous for Impressionists:' The Cos Cob Art Colony 1882–1920." Ph.D. dissertation, 1996. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microforms, 1996, pp. xxi, 172–73, 400 ill. in b/w (6.7), as Country House in Winter, Cos Cob.
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. 118–20 ill. in color, as Country House in Winter, Cos Cob.
Butler 2019
Butler, Eliza. "John Henry Twachtman and the Materiality of Snow." American Art 33 (Fall 2019), p. 75, 79, 85, as Country House in Winter, Cos Cob.
Commentary

Probably painted in 1901, when Twachtman often boarded at the Holley House (see Glossary of Names), Country House in Winter, Cos Cob is a view from the Holley House porch toward the Brush House, at the right, and its adjacent store, at the left (see Brush House, Cos Cob, OP.1507, fig. 1).[1] As in Brush House, Cos Cob, Twachtman emphasized the solidity of the buildings standing together, their conjoined shape visible against the snow-covered landscape. However, his viewpoint was at a greater distance here than in Brush House, Cos Cob,  as he stood across from Strickland Road, visible on a diagonal in the foreground (fig. 2). Before him were bare lilac bushes, winnowing his view and implying his role as a detached observer of the scene. Accordingly, within the square composition, he conveyed how the buildings seemed in accord with the landscape more so than in Brush House, Cos Cob, in which their contours are more pronounced.  

Country House in Winter, Cos Cob belonged to the artist’s wife until 1907, when it sold to Charles R. Stanford, of Albany, New York. It subsequently passed through Macbeth Galleries four times before being purchased in 1931 by the Addison Gallery of American Art.

[1] Built between 1751 and 1784, the Brush House descended in the family of colonial settlers in Greenwich involved in the shipping trade and was occupied during Twachtman’s years in Greenwich by Joseph E. B. Brush (1833–1914), an eccentric, retired individual who lived alone. See Larkin 2001–I, pp. 119–25.

Selected Literature

From Faxon, Berman, and Reynolds 1996

Twachtman's preference for solitary communion with nature is apparent in Country House in Winter, Cos Cob. The building pictured, a popular and often-painted motif, is the Brush House and store, which was one of the oldest structures in the seaside town. It was located next to the Holley House, an inn owned by Edward Holley where Twachtman and other painters used to board. With this image, he celebrated the season through an arrangement of subtle variations of white. In addition to the abstract flatness and passages of brilliant impasto, the chalky matte surface reflects the artist's previous work in pastels and his unusual painting techniques; he dried his canvases outside in the sunlight, for example, to reduce the oil and to create such effects.

From Larkin 2001–I

Twachtman probably set his easel on the porch to paint Country House in Winter, Cos Cob, a winter view of the Brush House. A contemporary photograph of two women on the Holley House porch, with the Brush House visible in the background approximates Twachtman's viewpoint.  More on the Brush house . . . . In Country House in Winter, Twachtman subtly situated the Brush House within a rural village. The tumbledown stone wall and leafless bushes in the foreground were actually on the Holley property; beyond them lay the rutted road that ran between the “ancient sisters.” Another house is visible behind Brush’s [p. 119].