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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.1122
The Pool
Alternate title: Pool
ca. 1889–99
Oil on canvas
26 x 31 in. (66 x 78.7 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman–
Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Charles L. Freer (08.7)
Provenance
(Knoedler);
A. H. Griffith;
to Charles Lang Freer, October 30, 1908;
gift to present collection, 1908.
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. 170, as The Pool, lent by the Detroit Museum of Art (Recently presented to the Museum by Charles L. Freer, Esq.), lent by the Detroit Museum of Art, recently presented to the Museum by Charles L. Freer, Esq.
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. 170, as The Pool, lent by the Detroit Museum of Art, recently presented to the Museum by Charles L. Freer, Esq.
1910 Carnegie Institute
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Fourteenth Annual Carnegie Institute International Exhibition, May 2–June 30, 1910, no. 280, as The Pool.
1912 John Herron Institute
John Herron Institute, Indianapolis, Twenty-Eighth Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings by American Artists, December 17, 1912–January 3, 1913, no. 74, as The Pool, lent by The Detroit Museum of Art.
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. 23, as The Pool, lent by Detroit Museum of Art.
1952 Century Association
Century Association, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by Abbott Thayer and John H. Twachtman, March 5–May 4, 1952, as The 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. 68, as The Pool, lent by the Detroit Institute of Arts.
1973 National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., American Impressionist Painting, July 1–August 26, 1973, no. 63, p. 131 ill. in b/w, as The Pool. Traveled to: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 18–November 2, 1973; Cincinnati Art Museum, December 15, 1973–January 31, 1974; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, March 8–April 29, 1974.
1984 Grand Rapids Art Museum
Grand Rapids Art Museum, Michigan, Color and Light: American Impressionist Paintings and Prints from Michigan Collections, 1984, no. 14, pp. 16–17 ill. in color, as The Pool.
Literature
Buffalo Fine Arts Academy 1909
Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. "Fourth Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists." Academy Notes 4 (May 1909), pp. 201 ill. in b/w, 203, as The Pool.
Bulletin of the Detroit Museum of Art 1909
"Two Notable Gifts: Mr. Freer's Gift." Bulletin of the Detroit Museum of Art 3 (January 1909), pp. 1–2, as The Pool.
Bulletin of the Detroit Museum of Art 1913
"Contemporary American Art: J. H. Twachtman." Bulletin of the Detroit Museum of Art 7 (July 1913), pp. 52–53, as The Pool.
Buffalo Courier 1922
"Contribution to Development of American Art by Birge Harrison, John H. Twachtman, and Dwight Tryon." Buffalo Courier, January 1, 1922, p. 22, as The Pool.
Detroit Institute of Arts 1930
Catalogue of Paintings in the Permanent Collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts of the City of Detroit, Vol. 1. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1930, p. 399 ill. in b/w, as The Pool.
Detroit Institute of Arts 1937
The More Important Paintings and Sculptures of the Detroit Institute of Arts of the City of Detroit. Detroit Institute of Arts, 1937, p. 202 ill. in b/w, as The 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. 564 (catalogue A, no. 473), as Pool. (Hale concordance).
Boyle 1979
Boyle, Richard. John Twachtman. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1979, pp. 52, 54–55 ill. in color, as The Pool.
Brunk 1981
Brunk, Thomas W. "A Note on Charles Lang Freer." Detroit Institute of the Arts Bulletin 59 (Spring 1981), pp. 18 ill. in b/w, 19, as The Pool.
Shaw 1986
Shaw, Nancy Rivard. "Rebellion, Defiance, and Beauty: Two Centuries of American Painting." Apollo 124 (December 1, 1986), p. 68 ill. in b/w, as The 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, p. 359; vol. 2, p. 897 ill. in b/w (fig. 383), as The Pool.
Commentary

The locale depicted is probably the pond created by Twachtman for his family by damming a section of Horseneck Brook. This is where his children sailed in the small sailboat that can be seen in A Summer Day (OP.972) and Boat at Anchor (OP.973). In all three works, there is a high embankment encircling the pond, its dominant yellows suggesting the dry foliage and heat of summer. Twachtman’s water-level view emphasizes the symmetry of trees and their reflections and the misty sunlight infusing what appears to be a morning scene. As such, Twachtman perhaps intended it to complement Boat at Anchor, with its long shadows suggestive of the day’s end.

When this painting was brought before the acquisition committee committee of the Detroit Museum of Art (now Detroit Institute of Arts) in 1908, it was deemed a "splendid example" of the artist's work and it was "a matter of deep regret to the members of the committee that the funds were insufficient" for its purchase." The painting was returned to its owner, but then the noted Detroit art collector, Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919), stepped in and "gave his check for the amount required, and generously presented the painting to the museum's permanent collection."[1] The museum lent out the painting frequently in the years that followed, crediting Freer's gift.

[1] Bulletin of the Detroit Museum of Art 1909.

Selected Literature

From Bulletin of the Detroit Museum of Art 1909

"The Pool," encompassed by a high bank, covered here and there at the water's edge with green verduce, is painted in all the heat and light of a midsummer day. A tree, with branches high up on the trunk, is reflected in the quiet waters. A hilly background covered with a vegetation which has taken on the ripened hues of midsummer, is disclosed in the glare of noonday. The choice of subject is admirable. But the merit of the picture does not lie in an attempt to show the individuality of this particular scene. The object of the artist has, it seems to me, been to paint the luminosity and the atmosphere which envelopes this landscape, and in such a way that it might be applied to any other landscape seen under similar conditions of light and atmosphere. The picture is a very beautiful and harmonious bit of color.

From Bulletin of the Detroit Museum of Art 1913

In the year 1908 Mr. Charles L. Freer purchased and presented to the Detroit Museum of Art a painting entitled The Pool, by J. H. Twachtman, which was destined to provoke the delight and admiration of all those who come to know it thoroughly. It is not a popular picture. Many visitors fail to grasp its beauty, but those who see it time after time, some day suddenly have a miracle performed on their vision, after which their rapt and blind admiration knows no bounds.

From Boyle 1979

In contrast to the delicate, feathery touch of Meadow Flowers [OP.945], The Pool is painted with great directness and vigor. Similar in concept to Spring Morning [OP.1120], this picture is much stronger than the latter: its color is more definite, and the impasto heavier. The grouping of the trees and the boulder . . . is not unlike the careful disposition of elements in a still life.
          The device of the assertive vertical created by the tree and its reflection recalls that used by Monet in his poplar series painted in the early 1890s. Indeed, the boldness of The Pool is reminiscent of Monet’s work. The color in Twachtman’s painting, however, is not as strong or as daring in its contrast and brightness of hue; nor is his application of paint as sensuous as that of Monet [p. 54].