Catalogue Entry
Ensconced in an autumnal landscape, a dwelling with a high-pitched roof and front porch covered by an awning, resembles but is not a view of Twachtman’s Greenwich home (fig. 1). The palette of pastel hues, applied in thin layers over a toned ground, suggests that Twachtman rendered the painting at or just before his move to Greenwich, when he was working extensively in pastel, and before he developed a more fully Impressionist brushwork. Here he applied the method he had adopted in pastels on toned papers to a canvas ground. Against a cool-hued surface, he used a warm palette to produce a sunlit effect.
Twachtman inscribed this painting to its first owner, the artist Arthur V. Willcox (fig. 2).[1] An elusive individual, Willcox was born in Philadelphia, where he was a member of the Art Club of Philadelphia. In the early twentieth century he resided in London and at Glendalough House in County Galway, Ireland. A member of the Players Club, he also knew Julian Alden Weir (with whom he corresponded), Frank W. Benson, and Edmund Tarbell; he similarly inscribed a painting to Tarbell.[2] House in Landscape was purchased from Willcox’s wife, Marion Cozzens Willcox, by Knoedler in February 1935 and acquired from Knoedler by Washington University in January 1936.[3]
[1] Willcox is listed in the American Art Annual, 1900. Two letters from Willcox to Julian Alden Weir are in the Weir family papers, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library; Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, MSS511; http://sc.lib.byu.edu/.
[2] Edmund Tarbell, Portrait of a Woman in White (ca. 1885–90, oil on canvas, 29 x 24 inches, location unknown) is inscribed “To my Friend / WILLCOX / Edmund C. Tarbell.” Illustrated in Tranquil America: A Century of Painting, 1840–1940 (New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2001), no. 29.
[3] Knoedler Gallery, Dealer Stock Books, Getty Archives, Knoedler Book 8, Stock No. A1520, p. 141, row 3, Mrs. Arthur Wilcox [sic] (Hôtel Atlantic, Nice, France), purchase price $850. Sold to Washington University in Saint Louis for $1,500.
- Museum website (kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu)