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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
P.816
Tree by a Road
ca. 1888–89
Pastel on brown cardboard
18 x 21 1/2 in. (45.7 x 54.6 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman–
Cincinnati Art Museum, Museum Purchase (1900.387)
Provenance
Purchased from the artist for the present collection by the Artist's Fund, Cincinnati, 1900.
Exhibitions
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. 100, p. 30 ill. in b/w, as Tree by a Road.
Literature
Meakin 1909
Meakin, Lewis Henry. "Letter to the Editor, Re: Cincinnati Museum and American Art." American Art News 4 (December 25, 1909), p. 4, as Tree by a Road.
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. 589 (catalogue A, no. 1028), as Tree by a Road. (Hale concordance).
Boyle 1978
Boyle, Richard J. "John H. Twachtman: An Appreciation." American Art & Antiques 1 (November–December 1978), pp. 72 ill. in color, 76, as Tree by a Road.
Boyle 1979
Boyle, Richard. John Twachtman. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1979, p. 17, as Tree by a Road.
Boyle 1990
Boyle, Richard J. "Some Observations on American Impressionist Drawing." Drawing 12 (May–June 1990), p. 3 ill. in b/w, as Tree by a Road.
Peters 2006–IV
Peters, Lisa N. "Catalogue." In John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter", by Lisa N. Peters. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Spanierman), p. 130 ill. in color, as Tree by a Road.
Commentary

Featuring the same site as in the artist's largest-known oil painting, Branchville (OP.822), this pastel is a view looking west from the front door of Julian Alden Weir's Branchville home. Whereas in the painting Twachtman treated the scene as a large freely rendered sketch, here he pared it down to the elements expressing how he perceived the landscape. Instead of drawing the viewer toward the distance in accord with traditional perspetive, he emphasized the near tree, stabilized by the line of the hills set high in the design, and the way that the foreshortened road appeared to rise upward rather than to recede.   

This is Twachtman's first pastel to be purchased by a museum. It was acquired from him directly for the museum by the Artist's Fund of Cincinnati in 1900, the same year the museum bought Waterfall, Blue Brook (OP.1137), the first oil by the artist to be owned by a museum.

Selected Literature

From Boyle 1979

The matte surface of many of his canvases and the delicacy with which the paint is applied, as well as his finely balanced use of open areas, might well derive from his long familiarity with the pastel medium, for which he praised in his day. Tree by a Road is a lovely example of this aspect of his art.