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Lot Essay
Perhaps most renowned for his Impressionist landscapes of his home in Connecticut and its environs, John H. Twachtman also painted a small number of western landscapes in Yellowstone National Park.
He traveled to Wyoming in 1895 under the sponsorship of his patron, Major W. A. Wadsworth. Upon his arrival, Twachtman described the wild landscape of the park as a revelation for one accustomed to the comparatively placid landscapes of New England. Writing to Wadsworth, the artist noted his excitement with his surroundings, calling his experience "like the outing of a city boy to the country for the first time," adding that "I was too long in one place. This scenery too is fine enough to shock any mind." (L.N. Peters, John Henry Twachtman, An American Impressionist, Atlanta, Georgia, 1999, p. 131).
The view depicted here encompasses the canyon of the Yellowstone River, a dramatic landscape first sketched twenty five years before by Thomas Moran, the artist who created sweeping vistas of the same subject in the style of the Hudson River School. In contrast to the picturesque and romantic images of earlier artists such as Moran, Twachtman brought to the subject an entirely new vision. With painterly brushwork, he depicts the high canyon walls with vivid pinks, blues and yellows, rendering the canyon in a light, atmospheric, Impressionist style. The effect is the creation of a more intimate, uncontrived view that emphasizes the sensuous qualities of this iconic landscape.
Other important works inspired by his visit to Yellowstone include The Rapids, Yellowstone (Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts) and The Emerald Pool (Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut). Writing on the latter work, and related paintings of the same geyser basin, Dr. William H. Gerdts notes that "his several views of the Emerald Pool are marvelous jewels of color set into sinuous arabesques of outline." (W.H. Gerdts, American Impressionism, New York, 1984, p. 161). These works, and the others created at the Park, provide a unique realization of the American West and the landscape tradition to which Twachtman devoted his entire career.
He traveled to Wyoming in 1895 under the sponsorship of his patron, Major W. A. Wadsworth. Upon his arrival, Twachtman described the wild landscape of the park as a revelation for one accustomed to the comparatively placid landscapes of New England. Writing to Wadsworth, the artist noted his excitement with his surroundings, calling his experience "like the outing of a city boy to the country for the first time," adding that "I was too long in one place. This scenery too is fine enough to shock any mind." (L.N. Peters, John Henry Twachtman, An American Impressionist, Atlanta, Georgia, 1999, p. 131).
The view depicted here encompasses the canyon of the Yellowstone River, a dramatic landscape first sketched twenty five years before by Thomas Moran, the artist who created sweeping vistas of the same subject in the style of the Hudson River School. In contrast to the picturesque and romantic images of earlier artists such as Moran, Twachtman brought to the subject an entirely new vision. With painterly brushwork, he depicts the high canyon walls with vivid pinks, blues and yellows, rendering the canyon in a light, atmospheric, Impressionist style. The effect is the creation of a more intimate, uncontrived view that emphasizes the sensuous qualities of this iconic landscape.
Other important works inspired by his visit to Yellowstone include The Rapids, Yellowstone (Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts) and The Emerald Pool (Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut). Writing on the latter work, and related paintings of the same geyser basin, Dr. William H. Gerdts notes that "his several views of the Emerald Pool are marvelous jewels of color set into sinuous arabesques of outline." (W.H. Gerdts, American Impressionism, New York, 1984, p. 161). These works, and the others created at the Park, provide a unique realization of the American West and the landscape tradition to which Twachtman devoted his entire career.