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Harbor View Hotel

Artist John Henry Twachtman (American, 1853 - 1902)
Date1902
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 30 1/4 x 30 1/4 inches (76.84 x 76.84 cm)
Framed: 45 1/2 x 45 1/2 x 3 inches (115.57 x 115.57 x 7.62 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number33-57
Signednone
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 217
Collections
DescriptionGloucester landscape with water and road in foreground, hotel in background under great tree.Exhibition History

Exhibition of Fifty Paintings by the Late John H. Twachtman, Possibly New York School of Applied Design for Women, January 15–February 15, 1913, no. 16 (as The Last Canvas).

Fine Arts Exhibition, Department of Fine Arts, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, February 20–December 4, 1915, no. 4076.

Post-Exposition Exhibition, Department of Fine Arts, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, January 1–May 1,1916, no. 5710.

[“Exhibition of Paintings and Pastels by John H. Twachtman”], Philadelphia Art Alliance, November 13–27, 1917, no cat.

An Important Exhibition of Paintings and Pastels by John H. Twachtman, Possibly Milch Galleries, New York, March 12–24, 1928, no. 14 (as Artist’s Last Painting [Unfinished]).

Leaders of American Impressionism, Brooklyn Museum, N.Y., October 16–November 28, 1937, no. 72.

Kansas City Art Institute, Mo., May 5–24, 1939, no cat.

A Retrospective Exhibition, John Henry Twachtman, Cincinnati Art Museum, October 7–November 20, 1966, no. 91.

American Art from the Nelson Gallery, Albrecht Art Museum, St. Joseph, Mo., November 1, 1976–January 31, 1977, no cat.

Twachtman in Gloucester: His Last Years, 1900–1902, Ira Spanierman Gallery, New York, May 12–June 13, 1987, unnumbered.

John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, June 6, 1999–May 21, 2000 (traveled), unnumbered.

Gallery Label
Painted in East Gloucester, Massachusetts, John Twachtman's Harbor View Hotel depicts the coastal town's famous resort. Twachtman, however, ignored tourist life in this canvas, preferring instead to use the site for an ethereal image verging on the abstract. Twachtman's poetic vision adds a modern twist to the tonal harmonies of American artists such as George Inness. The square canvas and absence of figures enhance its two-dimensional and non-narrative qualities. The sketchy, delicate paint handling makes the work seem incomplete, as seen in the spare treatment of the causeway at the lower left. Although it appears like raw canvas, Twachtman applied an extremely thin layer of grey paint to the area, adding compositional balance for the shadowy structures in the background.
Provenance

Possibly to Martha Twachtman (widow of the artist);

Colonel J. Alden Twachtman (son of the artist), Greenwich, Conn.;

to NAMA, 1933.

Published References

Possibly Exhibition of Fifty Paintings by the Late John H. Twachtman, exh. cat. (New York: New York School of Applied Design for Women, 1913), unpaginated (as The Last Canvas).

John E. D. Trask and J. Nilsen Laurvik, eds., Catalogue de Luxe of the Department of Fine Arts, Panama-Pacific International Exposition (San Francisco: Paul Elder and Company, 1915), 1:227, 2:337.

Official Catalogue (Illustrated) of the Department of Fine Arts Panama-Pacific International Exposition (with Awards) San Francisco, California, exh. cat. (San Francisco: Wahlgreen Company, 1915), 75, 188.

Illustrated Catalogue of the Post-Exposition Exhibition in the Department of Fine Arts Panama-Pacific International Exposition San Francisco, California, exh. cat. (San Francisco: San Francisco Art Association, 1916), 56.

“Charming Pictures Put on Exhibition,” Philadelphia Press, November 15, 1917, 10 (as The Harbor View and illustrated as The Marsh).

Possibly “American Art: Twachtman, Arthur B. Davies and Some Others,” New York Herald Tribune, March 18, 1928, sec. 7, 11.

Possibly An Important Exhibition of Paintings and Pastels by John H. Twachtman, exh. cat. (New York: Milch Galleries, 1928), unpaginated (as Artist’s Last Painting [Unfinished]).

M.K.P., “Art,” Kansas City Star, April 9, 1933, 14A.

“Art News,” Kansas City Journal-Post, April 23, 1933, 2B.

“Twachtman’s Last Picture for Kansas City,” Art Digest 7 (May 1, 1933), 18.

“The Acquisitions,” Art Digest 8 (December 1, 1933), 22.

“Nelson Gallery Has Twachtman’s Last Work,” Art Digest 8 (December 1, 1933), 26.

“The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art: Complete Catalogue of Paintings and Drawings,” Art News 32 (December 9, 1933), 28.

Handbook of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art (Kansas City, Mo.: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1933), 126, 138.

“Art,” Kansas City Star, August 30, 1936, 10A.

“American Landscape Paintings,” News Flashes (William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts), 2 (September 1, 1936), 2.

Leaders of American Impressionism, exh. cat. (Brooklyn, N.Y.: Brooklyn Museum, 1937), 37.

“American Landscape Paintings,” News Flashes (William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts), 8 (June 1939), 2.


The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2nd ed. (Kansas City, Mo.: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 149, 157, 166.

Winifred Shields, “Traditional New England Scenes Attract Artists Year after Year,” Kansas City Star, August 15, 1952, 20.

John Douglass Hale, “The Life and Creative Development of John Henry Twachtman,” Ph.D. diss., Ohio State University, 1957, 1:289, 297, 2:554.

Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, Mo.: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 257.

Richard J. Boyle, A Retrospective Exhibition, John Henry Twachtman, exh. cat. (Cincinnati: Cincinnati Art Museum, 1966), 8, 19, 29.

The Index of Twentieth Century Artists, 1933–1937 (New York: Arno Press, reprinted with the permission of College Art Association, 1970), 353, 356.

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 255.

Richard J. Boyle, American Impressionism (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1974), 166–68.

Richard J. Boyle, John Twachtman (New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1979), 76, 84–85.

Richard J. Boyle, “Twachtman’s Tone Poems,” Antiques World 2 (December 1980), 67, 69.

William H. Gerdts, American Impressionism, exh. cat. (Seattle: Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, 1980), 68.

William H. Gerdts, American Impressionism (New York: Abbeville Press, 1984), 192.

Lisa N. Peters et al., Twachtman in Gloucester: His Last Years, 1900–1902, exh. cat. (New York: Universe Books, 1987), 13–14, 24, 86–87.

Lisa N. Peters et al., In the Sunlight: The Floral and Figurative Art of J. H. Twachtman, exh. cat. (New York: Spanierman Gallery, 1989), 52.

Lisa N. Peters, “Twachtman’s Greenwich Paintings: Context and Chronology,” in John Twachtman: Connecticut Landscapes, ed. Deborah Chotner, Peters, and Kathleen A. Pyne, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1989), 21.

Henry Adams, Handbook of American Paintings in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1991), 130.

Kristie C. Wolferman, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: Culture Comes to Kansas City (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1993), 141.

Lisa N. Peters, “John Twachtman (1853–1902) and the American Scene in the Late Nineteenth Century: The Frontier within the Terrain of the Familiar,” Ph.D. diss., City University of New York, 1995, 1:xliii, 486, 2:1002.

Stephen May, “Integrity Rewarded: The Art of John H. Twachtman,” TIMELINE 16 (July–August 1999), 17.

Lisa N. Peters, John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist, exh. cat. (Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 1999), 162, pl. 60.

Margaret C. Conrads, ed. The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: American Paintings to 1945 (Kansas City, Mo.: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2007), 1: 526–528, 2: 237–238.

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.


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