Harbor at Night

Harbor at Night is John Henry Twachtman's image of the harbor of Dordrecht, Holland at twilight. Intrigued by the dusky atmosphere cloaking this scene, Twachtman experimented with fine, lightly bitten lines to recreate the tonal effects of the river and the cloud bank obscuring the setting sun. The hull of a large boat at the center is the darkest form in the composition; several windmills, looming like apparitions, punctuate the open horizon.

As he developed his image directly on the plate without basing it on a preparatory drawing, Twachtman printed proof impressions to check his progress. He made only four such impressions of this etching; each documents a separate state, that is, a change he made to the image on the plate. This impression is a unique proof of the third of four states and it was never printed in an edition; it shows how the image looked just before Twachtman finalized it. In the fourth and final state, he resolved the ambiguities of the third state by strengthening the lines of a rowboat, barely visible here at lower left, and the large central windmill; he also transformed the black hull of the central boat in this impression into a platform for the windmill. The fourth state of Harbor at Night is faintly imprinted on the sheet bearing Twachtman's later etching Holland Dykes (TF 1996.71).

As they toured Europe in the summer of 1881, Twachtman and his wife, Cincinnati artist Martha Scudder (1861–1934), particularly enjoyed the flat rural landscape around Dordrecht. Returning there in June of 1885, Twachtman made several prints, including this etching (also known as Evening at Dordrecht) and Holland Dykes (TF 1996.71), inspired by the flat land wedged between expanses of sky and water. Twachtman, better known for his landscape paintings and pastels, created twenty-nine etchings between 1879 and 1893. Harbor at Night, with its delicate lines and suggestive imprecision, demonstrates his indebtedness to the etchings of expatriate American artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler, particular his Shipping, Venice (TF 1992.159). Twachtman was one of several American painters who shifted the function of etching from simple reproduction of painted images to a vibrant means of artistic expression.

The Prints of John Henry Twachtman, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio (organizer). Venue: Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio, June 6–September 5, 1999.

On Process: The American Print, Technique Examined, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 13–March 2, 2001.

The Studio of Nature, 1860-1910: The Terra Collection in Context (L’atelier de la Nature, 1860-1910. Invitation à la Terra Collection). Terra Foundation for American Art with the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny (organizers). Venue: Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, France, September 12, 2020–January 3, 2021. [exh. cat. in French]

Baskett, Mary Welsh. John Henry Twachtman: American Impressionist Painter as a Printmaker: A Catalogue Raisonné of His Prints. New York: Meg Hausberg, 1999. No. 14, pp. 88–89. [specific reference to Terra print on p. 88 (third state)].

Bourguignon, Katherine and Valerie Reis. The Studio of Nature, 1860-1910: The Terra Collection in Context. (exh. cat, Terra Foundation for American Art with the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny). Paris, France: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2020.  Pl. 46, p. 116 (color).