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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.1120
Spring Morning
Late 1890s
Oil on canvas
25 x 30 in. (63.5 x 76.2 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Purchase (13.2.1)
Provenance
Acquired from the artist's estate by William T. Evans, by 1911;
to (American Art Association, New York, Evans sale, March 31–April 2, 1913, lot 125);
to (Macbeth);
to present collection, 1913.
Exhibitions
1905 Knoedler
M. Knoedler & Co, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Pictures by John H. Twachtman, January 2–11, 1905, no. 13, as Spring Morning.
1907–I Lotos Club
Lotos Club, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by the Late John H. Twachtman, January 5–31, 1907, no. 34, as Spring Morning, lent by Mrs. John H. Twachtman.
1908–I Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts probably
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 103rd Annual Exhibition, January 20–February 29, 1908, no. 453, as Spring Morning.
1908 Carnegie Institute
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Twelfth Annual Carnegie Institute International Exhibition, April 30–June 30, 1908, no. 34, as Spring Morning.
1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
Seattle, Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, June 1–October 16, 1909, no. 116, as Spring Morning, lent by Silas S. Dustin, New York.
1910 Albright Art Gallery
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, Fifth Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists, May 11–September 1, 1910, no. 227, lent by Silas S. Dustin, Esq, New York), (p. 57 ill.
1910 City Art Museum of St. Louis
City Art Museum of St. Louis, Fifth Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists, September 15–November 15, 1910, no. 227, p. 16 ill. in b/w, as Spring Morning, lent by Silas S. Dustin, New York.
1910 Lotos Club
Lotos Club, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by French and American Luminists, December 17, 1910 and following days, no. 42, as Spring Morning, lent by Mrs. Twachtman.
1911 Wentworth Manor
Wentworth Manor, Montclair, New Jersey, American Paintings: Collection of William T. Evans, February 1911, no. 141, as Spring Morning.
1913 American Art Galleries
American Art Galleries, New York, The Private Collection of American Paintings Formed by the Widely Known Amateur William T. Evans, Esq. of New York, March 31–April 2, 1913, no. 125, as Spring Morning.
1957 Carnegie Institute
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, American Classics of the Nineteenth Century, October 18–December 1, 1957, no. 98, as Spring Morning. Traveled to: Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, January 5–26, 1958; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, February 14–March 16, 1958; Baltimore Museum of Art, April 8–May 4, 1958; Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire, May 22–June 25, 1958.
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. 47, as Spring Morning, lent by the Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh.
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. 17, p. 105 ill. in color, as Spring Morning. Traveled to: Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, March 18–May 20, 1990.
Literature
Carnegie Institute 1912
Carnegie Institute. Lists of Paintings, Drawings, and Japanese Prints in the Permanent Collections of the Department of Fine Arts. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Institute, 1912, n.p., as Spring Morning.
American Art Association 1913
Private Collection Formed by the Widely Known Amateur William T. Evans. Auction catalogue, March 3–April 2, 1913. New York: American Art Association, 1913, lot 125, as Spring Morning.
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. 571 (catalogue A, no. 590), as Spring Morning. (Hale concordance).
Carnegie Institute 1973
Carnegie Institute. Catalogue of the Painting Collection, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Institute, 1973, pp. 170–71, as Spring Morning.
Boyle 1979
Boyle, Richard. John Twachtman. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1979, pp. 50–51 ill. in color, 54, as Spring Morning.
May 1990
May, Stephen. "Twachtman at the Wadsworth Atheneum." Art Times (March 1990), p. 8 ill. in b/w, 9, as Spring Morning.
May 1991
May, Stephen. "Visual Poetry: The Landscapes of John Henry Twachtman." Carnegie Magazine 60 (January–February 1991), pp. 34 ill. in color, 38, as Spring Morning.
Strazdes 1992
Strazdes, Diana. American Paintings and Sculpture to 1945 in the Carnegie Museum of Art. New York: Hudson Hills in association with the Carnegie Museum of Art, 1992, p. 459 ill. in b/w, as Spring Morning.
Commentary

Spring Morning seems to be a view looking down Horseneck Brook, to the south of Twachtman’s Greenwich home. The work was included in  Twachtman’s memorial exhibitions at Knoedler Galleries in 1905 and the Lotos Club in 1907, to which it was lent by the artist’s wife. It was probably shown at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh in 1908, and it was one of four works sent by Silas Dustin, agent for the artist’s estate, to the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in 1909. In1910 the painting was again on view at the Lotos Club in an exhibition that juxtaposed works by American and French Impressionists, after which it was purchased by William T. Evans, who exhibited it at his Montclair home in February 1911. Two years later, the painting was included in the sale of Evans’s collection at the American Art Association in New York, and described in the catalogue:

The end of a pond, or small meadow lake, filling the foreground of the picture, extends back between low converging hills to a blunted angle at the base of a transverse upland. The surface of the water is wholly given to reflections of the grayish-white sky, and a pink tinge of early morning—and of the green banks and bordering hillsides, and the shadows of thick green trees which surmount them—all filling the water with a varied range of delicate and of deep color. The air is moist and fresh, with a suggestion in this small enclosed valley of the light haze overhanging the general landscape on warm spring mornings.

From that sale, the painting was purchased by New York's Macbeth Gallery, which sold it within the year to the Carnegie Institute (now Carnegie Museum of Art).

Selected Literature

From Boyle 1979

Although Twachtman's mental image here might relate to visual ambiguity (Which is reality—the landscape or its reflection?), the actual execution of the picture, with its direct frontality and strong surface pattern, is far from ambiguous and demonstrates Twachtman's exceptional ability to allow his form to follow the subject [p. 51].