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Lot Essay
One of the most innovative painters of his day, John Henry Twachtman advanced the tenets of Impressionism further than the majority of his American contemporaries. With a goal of furthering progressive ideas in art, he was also an influential member of the Ten American painters, a group which he helped organize with the intention of promoting pure painting. "Twachtman's career was characterized by a spirit of experimentation," writes Lisa Peters. "He developed a highly individual style that responded to the artistic issues of his time, yet was never limited by them...[He] remained devoted to creating art that was personal, often defiant of the conventional." (John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist, Atlanta, Georgia, 1999, p. 9)
Twachtman's primary subject was nature. Along with the majority of his late landscapes, From the Upper Terrace was painted in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he created many of his most important and lasting images. He settled there in 1889, dedicating himself to depicting his home and gardens on Round Hill Road. These later works, including From the Upper Terrace, also tend to be among the artist's most artistically advanced paintings. The landscape elements are simplified and Twachtman compresses the foreground and background by using a high horizon line. The high vantage point forces the viewer to concentrate on the contours of the landscape, and to consider the organic relationship between his Greenwich home and the surrounding nature. "In this painting, the house, as the artist intended in remodeling it, is gently embraced by the landscape. Rather than intruding on the site, it takes on the colors of the garden. The meandering pathways suggest spontaneity, informality, and freedom." (John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist, p. 143) Twachtman renders his composition in a cool palette of greens, yellow, pale pinks, blues and chalky whites, and applies these hues with layers of horizontal and diagonal brushstrokes increasing the emphasis on pattern in the composition.
In works such as From the Upper Terrace, Twachtman established his most lasting legacy, a career that maintained both a mastery of nineteenth-century Impressionism and a willingness to advance pure painting toward abstraction, hinting at developments to come in the twentieth century. Shortly after Twachtman's death in 1902, the artist Thomas Wilmer Dewing remembered his friend by recognizing in his art "the most modern spirit...too modern, probably, to be recognized or appreciated at present; but his place will be recognized in the future." (as quoted in John Twachtman: An American Impressionist, p. 143)
This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the work of John Henry Twachtman by Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D. and Ira Spanierman.
Twachtman's primary subject was nature. Along with the majority of his late landscapes, From the Upper Terrace was painted in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he created many of his most important and lasting images. He settled there in 1889, dedicating himself to depicting his home and gardens on Round Hill Road. These later works, including From the Upper Terrace, also tend to be among the artist's most artistically advanced paintings. The landscape elements are simplified and Twachtman compresses the foreground and background by using a high horizon line. The high vantage point forces the viewer to concentrate on the contours of the landscape, and to consider the organic relationship between his Greenwich home and the surrounding nature. "In this painting, the house, as the artist intended in remodeling it, is gently embraced by the landscape. Rather than intruding on the site, it takes on the colors of the garden. The meandering pathways suggest spontaneity, informality, and freedom." (John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist, p. 143) Twachtman renders his composition in a cool palette of greens, yellow, pale pinks, blues and chalky whites, and applies these hues with layers of horizontal and diagonal brushstrokes increasing the emphasis on pattern in the composition.
In works such as From the Upper Terrace, Twachtman established his most lasting legacy, a career that maintained both a mastery of nineteenth-century Impressionism and a willingness to advance pure painting toward abstraction, hinting at developments to come in the twentieth century. Shortly after Twachtman's death in 1902, the artist Thomas Wilmer Dewing remembered his friend by recognizing in his art "the most modern spirit...too modern, probably, to be recognized or appreciated at present; but his place will be recognized in the future." (as quoted in John Twachtman: An American Impressionist, p. 143)
This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the work of John Henry Twachtman by Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D. and Ira Spanierman.