John Henry Twachtman

The White Bridge, ca. 1895, Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

John Henry Twachtman (August 4, 1853-August 8, 1902) was an American painter best-known for his impressionist landscapes, though his painting style varied widely through his career. Art historians consider Twachtman's style of impressionism to be among the more personal and experimental of his generation. He was a member of "The Ten", a loosely-allied group of American artists dissatisfied with professional art organizations, who banded together in 1898 to exhibit their works as a stylistically-unified group.

Twachtman was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and received his first art training there under Frank Duveneck. Like most artists of the era, Twachtman then proceeded to Europe to further his education. He enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in 1875 and visited Venice with Duveneck and William Merritt Chase. His landscapes from this time exhibit the loosely-brushed, shadowy technique taught at Munich. Twachtman also learned etching, and sometimes carried etching plates with him that he could use to spontaneously record a scene.

After a brief return to America, Twachtman studied from 1883 to 1885 at the Académie Julian in Paris, and his paintings dramatically shifted towards a soft, gray and green tonalist style. During this time he painted what some art historians consider to be his greatest masterpieces, including Arques-la-Bataille, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and Springtime, in the collection of the Cincinnati Art Museum.

In 1886 he returned to America and settled in Connecticut, eventually buying a farm in Greenwich. He often painted and exhibited with fellow artist Julian Alden Weir, and spent considerable time at the art colony in Cos Cob. In addition to his oil paintings, Twachtman continued to create etchings as well as drawings in pastel. Twachtman taught painting at the Art Students League for many years. One of his students was William E.B. Starkweather.

In Connecticut his painting style shifted again, this time to a highly personal impressionist technique. Twachtman painted many landscapes of his farm and garden in Greenwich, often depicting the snow-covered landscape. He executed dozens of paintings of a small waterfall on his property, capturing the scene in different seasons and times of day. Late in life Twachtman visited Gloucester, Massachusetts, another center of artistic activity in the late 19th century, and produced a series of vibrant scenes that anticipated a more modernist style yet to gain prominence in American art.

Twachtman died suddenly in Gloucester of a ruptured appendix. Today, his works are in many museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Further reading

• Gerdts, William H. (2001). American Impressionism, Second Edition. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers. ISBN 0789207370.
• Larkin, Susan G. (2001). The Cos Cob Art Colony. New York: the National Academy of Design. ISBN 0300088523.
• Peters, Lisa N. (1999). John Henry Twachtman : An American Impressionist. Atlanta, Georgia: Hudson Hills Press. ISBN 1555951783.