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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Keywords
OP.1503
Brush House, Cos Cob
Alternate titles: The Country Store; Village Store, Winter
ca. 1900–02
Oil on canvas
30 x 30 in. (76.2 x 76.2 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman–
Private collection
Exhibitions
1909 Albright Art Gallery
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, Fourth Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists, May 10–August 30, 1909, no. 171, as The Country Store, lent by Silas Dustin, Esq, New York.
1909 City Art Museum of St. Louis
City Art Museum of St. Louis, Fourth Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists, opened September 12, 1909, no. 171, as The Country Store, lent by Silas Dustin, Esq, New York.
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. 20, as Village Store, Winter, lent by Mrs. J. H. Twachtman.
1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition
Department of Fine Arts, San Francisco, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, February 20–December 4, 1915, no. 4055, as Brush House, Cos Cob.
1926 California Palace of the Legion of Honor
California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Lincoln Park, San Francisco, First Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists, November 15, 1926–January 30, 1927, no. 197, as Brush House, Cos Cob, lent by Jacob Stern Esq, San Francisco, California.
1928 California Palace of the Legion of Honor
California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, Jacob Stern Loan Collection, July 29–August 9, 1928, no. 34, pp. 41, 43, as Brush House, Cos Cob.
1960 San Francisco Museum of Art
San Francisco Museum of Art, Modern Masters in West Coast Collections: An Exhibition Selected in Celebration of the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the San Francisco Museum of Art, 1935–1960, October 18–November 27, 1960, as Brush House, Cos Cob, lent by the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Jacob Stern Permanent Loan Collection, San Francisco, California.
1970 California Palace of the Legion of Honor
California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, Three Centuries of American Painting from the Collection of the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, December 19, 1970–January 7, 1971, as Brush House, Cos Cob.
1972 California Palace of the Legion of Honor
California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, The Color of Mood: American Tonalism, 1880–1910, January 22–April 2, 1972, as Brush House, Cos Cob.
Literature
California Palace of the Legion of Honor 1928
California Palace of the Legion of Honor. Catalogue of the Jacob Stern Loan Collection. San Francisco: California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1928, pp. 41, 43, as The Country Store.
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, pp. 496 (catalogue G, no. 597); (catalogue G, no. 598, as Village Store, Winter), 554 (catalogue A, no. 287), as The Country Store. (Hale concordance).
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. 976 ill. in b/w (fig. 476), as Brush House, 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, p. xxi, 173–74, 403 ill. in b/w (6.10), as Brush House, Cos Cob.
Sotheby's New York 2007–I
American Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture. Auction catalogue, May 24, 2007. New York: Sotheby's, 2007, lot 67 ill. in color, as Brush House, Cos Cob.
Commentary

In the winter of 1901, Twachtman stayed frequently at the Holley House in Cos Cob (see Glossary of Names) after having vacated his home in Greenwich. His vantage point in this painting was from the Holley House, looking toward the Brush House, at the right, and the country store that stood to its left (see October, OP.1507, fig. 1).[1] Twachtman portrayed this scene at different times of year, and here he brought out the clarity with which the buildings stood out in the winter, when they were unshielded by foliage. His vantage point was nearer to the buildings than in the similar Country House in Winter (OP.1504), and he framed the buildings at the center of his square composition, accentuating their closeness.   

This painting was lent by Martha Twachtman either directly or through the estate for the artist's agent, Silas S. Dustin, to exhibitions in 1909 and 1913 with titles including The Country Store and Village Store, Winter. The work was shown for the first time as Brush House, Cos Cob in the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, to which it was probably lent by Martha Twachtman. In 1926 the painting was acquired by the Jacob Stern Family. From that year until 2007, when it was sold at Sotheby’s, the painting was on loan to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

[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 Larkin 1996

A second view of the Brush House is less successful than “Country House in Winter” primarily because the dwelling seems so isolated. Robbed of its context, it loses its human appeal [p. 173].