Skip to main contentProvenanceThe artist
Dr. Edward L. Partridge, New York
Sotheby's New York, New York, June 4, 1982, lot 58
Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., New York, New York (agent), Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1982
Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1992
Exhibition HistoryPublished References
John H. Twachtman
(American, 1853–1902)
Winter Landscape
c. 1890–1900
Oil on canvas
Image: 30 1/8 x 30 1/8 in. (76.5 x 76.5 cm)
Frame: 41 x 41 in. (104.1 x 104.1 cm)
Frame: 41 x 41 in. (104.1 x 104.1 cm)
Credit LineTerra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection
Object number1992.136
SignedLower right: JH Twachtman
InterpretationWinter Landscape epitomizes John Henry Twachtman’s focus on winter themes in his highly individual and personal mature landscape paintings of the 1890s. This exactly square composition is one of numerous portrayals of the brook that meandered through the artist’s wooded, boulder-strewn property. Here, it threads a zig-zag path into the distance, where softly rounded hills, mantled in white snow, are almost indistinguishable from the opaque winter sky. Bare trees and the edges of the stream, where melting snow has begun a retreat from the rocky banks, offer notes of contrasting color that only emphasize the painting’s reduced palette of whites and frosty blues. According to the artist’s typical manner, paint is thinly brushed in rapid, vigorous strokes in some areas and built up in rough, tactile layers in others, as if to mimic the coarse texture of the melting snow itself and to evoke the softening effect of hazy atmosphere. Indeed, Twachtman’s painting technique was informed by his work in pastel, with its dry textures and muted but saturated color. Hushed and inanimate, the image is a disarmingly simple scene of frozen wintertime that also explores the purely decorative possibilities inherent both in nature and in the artist’s reductive treatment of the landscape.
In 1889, Twachtman purchased a seventeen-acre farm in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he lived and worked for the next eleven years. When not teaching in New York City to support his family, the artist painted with almost obsessive interest scenes he found around his property, particularly the stream and its pools and small waterfall. The serial nature of his portrayal and blurring effect of his rough brushwork demonstrate Twachtman’s adaptation of the strategies of impressionism, the portrayal of outdoor, everyday subjects with broken brushstrokes of undiluted color to replicate the effects of bright natural light. Twachtman was one of a number of American painters who, beginning in the late 1880s, adapted impressionist strategies to figural subjects and the native landscape with greater interest than their French counterparts in emotion and mood. Twachtman was particularly concerned with suggesting the abstract design inherent in the natural world. Such works as Winter Landscape, with its high horizon, tipped perspective, and flattening of forms against the painting surface, echo the aesthetics of Japanese prints, in which Twachtman and his close artistic associates became keenly interested in the early 1890s. Likewise, his reductive, rapidly executed, decorative yet poetic approach indicates the influence of the iconoclastic American expatriate artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler. From these diverse sources, Twachtman forged an individual impressionist expression of personal feeling, an art closely rooted in his attachment to a specific setting.
In 1889, Twachtman purchased a seventeen-acre farm in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he lived and worked for the next eleven years. When not teaching in New York City to support his family, the artist painted with almost obsessive interest scenes he found around his property, particularly the stream and its pools and small waterfall. The serial nature of his portrayal and blurring effect of his rough brushwork demonstrate Twachtman’s adaptation of the strategies of impressionism, the portrayal of outdoor, everyday subjects with broken brushstrokes of undiluted color to replicate the effects of bright natural light. Twachtman was one of a number of American painters who, beginning in the late 1880s, adapted impressionist strategies to figural subjects and the native landscape with greater interest than their French counterparts in emotion and mood. Twachtman was particularly concerned with suggesting the abstract design inherent in the natural world. Such works as Winter Landscape, with its high horizon, tipped perspective, and flattening of forms against the painting surface, echo the aesthetics of Japanese prints, in which Twachtman and his close artistic associates became keenly interested in the early 1890s. Likewise, his reductive, rapidly executed, decorative yet poetic approach indicates the influence of the iconoclastic American expatriate artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler. From these diverse sources, Twachtman forged an individual impressionist expression of personal feeling, an art closely rooted in his attachment to a specific setting.
Dr. Edward L. Partridge, New York
Sotheby's New York, New York, June 4, 1982, lot 58
Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., New York, New York (agent), Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1982
Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1992
Exhibition History
Exhibition, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, December 1925–May 1926.
Masterworks in American Art from the Daniel J. Terra Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, April 27–September 12, 1985.
A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 21–June 21, 1987. [exh. cat.]
Collection Cameo, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 1997.
D'une colonie à une collection: le Musée d'Art Américain Giverny fête ses dix ans (From a Colony to a Collection: Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of the Musée d'Art Américain Giverny), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, March 30–June 16, 2002.
A Narrative of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, February 13–October 31, 2004.
Art in America: 300 Years of Innovation, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, NY and Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, IL (organizers). Venues: National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China, February 9-April 5, 2007; Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, China, April 30-June 30, 2007; Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China, April 30-June 30, 2007 (Shanghai presentations ran concurrently); The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia, July 23–September 9, 2007; Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain, October 15, 2007–April 27, 2008 (exhibited in Beijing and Shanghai; exhibited in Bilbao). [exh. cat.]
Manifest Destiny, Manifest Responsibility: Environmentalism and the Art of the American Landscape. Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois and Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizers). Venue: Loyola University Museum of Art, May 17–August 10, 2008. [exh. cat.]
American Impressionism: a New Vision, 1880–1900 (L'Impressionnisme et les Américains/ Impresionismo Americano (French & Spanish titles), Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, Giverny, France and the Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois in collaboration with the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, United Kingdom and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain (organizers). Venues: Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, Giverny, France, March 28–June 29, 2014; Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, July 19–October 19, 2014; Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain, November 4, 2014–February 1, 2015. [exh. cat.]
Masterworks in American Art from the Daniel J. Terra Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, April 27–September 12, 1985.
A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 21–June 21, 1987. [exh. cat.]
Collection Cameo, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 1997.
D'une colonie à une collection: le Musée d'Art Américain Giverny fête ses dix ans (From a Colony to a Collection: Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of the Musée d'Art Américain Giverny), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, March 30–June 16, 2002.
A Narrative of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, February 13–October 31, 2004.
Art in America: 300 Years of Innovation, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, NY and Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, IL (organizers). Venues: National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China, February 9-April 5, 2007; Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, China, April 30-June 30, 2007; Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China, April 30-June 30, 2007 (Shanghai presentations ran concurrently); The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia, July 23–September 9, 2007; Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain, October 15, 2007–April 27, 2008 (exhibited in Beijing and Shanghai; exhibited in Bilbao). [exh. cat.]
Manifest Destiny, Manifest Responsibility: Environmentalism and the Art of the American Landscape. Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois and Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizers). Venue: Loyola University Museum of Art, May 17–August 10, 2008. [exh. cat.]
American Impressionism: a New Vision, 1880–1900 (L'Impressionnisme et les Américains/ Impresionismo Americano (French & Spanish titles), Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, Giverny, France and the Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois in collaboration with the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, United Kingdom and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain (organizers). Venues: Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, Giverny, France, March 28–June 29, 2014; Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, July 19–October 19, 2014; Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain, November 4, 2014–February 1, 2015. [exh. cat.]
Sotheby's New York, New York (Sale 4880M, June 4, 1982): lot 58. Ill. lot 58.
Atkinson, D. Scott et al. A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art. Edited by Terry A. Neff. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1987. Pl. T-83, p. 192 (color).
Gerdts, William H. et al. Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text p. 210; fig. 131, p. 210 (black & white).
Gerdts, William H. et al. Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text p. 210; fig. 131, p. 210 (black & white).
Southgate, M. Therese. "The Cover." The Journal of the American Medical Association 267:4 (January 22/29, 1992): 496. Text p. 496; ill. cover (color).
The Journal of the American Medical Association Greece (1993): cover. Ill. cover (color).
Winter Landscape, John Henry Twachtman. Collection Cameo sheet, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 1997. Ill. (black & white).
Bourguignon, Katherine M. and Elizabeth Kennedy. An American Point of View: The Daniel J. Terra Collection. Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2002. Text pp. 118, 150, 205; ill. pp. 119 (color), 205 (black & white).
Bourguignon, Katherine M. and Elizabeth Kennedy. Un regard transatlantique. La collection d'art américain de Daniel J. Terra. Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2002. Text pp. 118, 150, 205; ill. pp. 119 (color), 205 (black & white).
Davidson, Susan, ed. Art in America: 300 Years of Innovation. (exh. cat., National Museum of China, Beijing; Shanghai Museum). New York, NY: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation; Chicago, IL: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2007. Text p. 248; ill. p. 176 (color).
Davidson, Susan, ed. Art in America: 300 Years of Innovation. (exh. cat., National Museum of China, Beijing; Shanghai Museum). New York, NY: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation; Chicago, IL: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2007. Chinese edition. Text p. 248; ill. p. 176 (color).
Davidson, Susan, ed. Art in the USA: 300 años de innovación. (exh. cat., Guggenheim Museum Bilbao). New York, NY: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation; Chicago, IL: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2007. Ill. p. 126 (color).
Brownlee, Peter John. Manifest Destiny / Manifest Responsibility: Environmentalism and the Art of the American Landscape. (exh. cat., Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art and Loyola University Museum of Art, 2008. Text pp. 30, 37 (checklist); Ill. Pl. 15, p. 51 (color).
Bourguignon, Katherine M. American Impressionism: A New Vision 1880-1900. (exh. cat., Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, National Galleries of Scotland, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza). Giverny, France: Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, 2014. Text p. 45; ill. p. 127 (color).
Bourguignon, Katherine M. L’impressionnisme et les Américains. (exh. cat., Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, National Galleries of Scotland, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza). Giverny, France: Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, 2014. Text p. 45; ill. p. 127 (color).
Bourguignon, Katherine M. Impresionismo Americano. (exh. cat., Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, National Galleries of Scotland, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza). Giverny, France: Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, 2014. Text p. 45; ill. p. 127 (color).
Bourguignon, Katherine M., and Peter John Brownlee, eds. Conversations with the Collection: A Terra Foundation Collection Handbook. Chicago: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2018. Text p. 167; ill. p. 167 (color).
Atkinson, D. Scott et al. A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art. Edited by Terry A. Neff. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1987. Pl. T-83, p. 192 (color).
Gerdts, William H. et al. Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text p. 210; fig. 131, p. 210 (black & white).
Gerdts, William H. et al. Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text p. 210; fig. 131, p. 210 (black & white).
Southgate, M. Therese. "The Cover." The Journal of the American Medical Association 267:4 (January 22/29, 1992): 496. Text p. 496; ill. cover (color).
The Journal of the American Medical Association Greece (1993): cover. Ill. cover (color).
Winter Landscape, John Henry Twachtman. Collection Cameo sheet, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 1997. Ill. (black & white).
Bourguignon, Katherine M. and Elizabeth Kennedy. An American Point of View: The Daniel J. Terra Collection. Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2002. Text pp. 118, 150, 205; ill. pp. 119 (color), 205 (black & white).
Bourguignon, Katherine M. and Elizabeth Kennedy. Un regard transatlantique. La collection d'art américain de Daniel J. Terra. Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2002. Text pp. 118, 150, 205; ill. pp. 119 (color), 205 (black & white).
Davidson, Susan, ed. Art in America: 300 Years of Innovation. (exh. cat., National Museum of China, Beijing; Shanghai Museum). New York, NY: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation; Chicago, IL: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2007. Text p. 248; ill. p. 176 (color).
Davidson, Susan, ed. Art in America: 300 Years of Innovation. (exh. cat., National Museum of China, Beijing; Shanghai Museum). New York, NY: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation; Chicago, IL: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2007. Chinese edition. Text p. 248; ill. p. 176 (color).
Davidson, Susan, ed. Art in the USA: 300 años de innovación. (exh. cat., Guggenheim Museum Bilbao). New York, NY: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation; Chicago, IL: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2007. Ill. p. 126 (color).
Brownlee, Peter John. Manifest Destiny / Manifest Responsibility: Environmentalism and the Art of the American Landscape. (exh. cat., Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art and Loyola University Museum of Art, 2008. Text pp. 30, 37 (checklist); Ill. Pl. 15, p. 51 (color).
Bourguignon, Katherine M. American Impressionism: A New Vision 1880-1900. (exh. cat., Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, National Galleries of Scotland, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza). Giverny, France: Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, 2014. Text p. 45; ill. p. 127 (color).
Bourguignon, Katherine M. L’impressionnisme et les Américains. (exh. cat., Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, National Galleries of Scotland, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza). Giverny, France: Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, 2014. Text p. 45; ill. p. 127 (color).
Bourguignon, Katherine M. Impresionismo Americano. (exh. cat., Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, National Galleries of Scotland, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza). Giverny, France: Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, 2014. Text p. 45; ill. p. 127 (color).
Bourguignon, Katherine M., and Peter John Brownlee, eds. Conversations with the Collection: A Terra Foundation Collection Handbook. Chicago: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2018. Text p. 167; ill. p. 167 (color).