"Bringing the Museum to You"

The Cyber Art Show continues our study of American landscape painters in the Public Domain with the second of three 12-piece Exhibitions of works by John Henry Twachtman (1853-1902), a well-known Impressionist and member of “The Ten,” a group of American artists who rebelled against the art establishment at the turn of the 20th century.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Twachtman began his formal art training under the direction of renowned artist Frank Duveneck. Seeking to further his vocation Twachtman traveled to Europe in 1875, studying first at the Academy of Fine Arts, in Munich. Accompanied by Duveneck and the artist William Merritt Chase, Twachtman also spent some time in Venice, where he also learned the art of etching.

 

From 1883 to 1885, Twachtman studied at the Académie Julian in Paris, where he began to develop his tonalist style of painting.

 

After returning to America in 1886, Twachtman bought a farm in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he befriended the eminent painter Julian Alden Weir. The two exhibited their work together and became central figures of the art colony in Cos Cob. Said art historian Susan G. Larkin in her book The Cos Cob Art Colony:

 

“Ironically, (Twachtman’s) lack of commercial success contributed to his artistic independence, freeing him from the temptation of producing salable pictures according to a proven formula. His art, conversation, and teaching fueled the creative fires of his friends and students in Cos Cob." 

 

By 1893, Twachtman was exhibiting his work alongside Claude Monet’s in New York, receiving a silver medal that year at the Columbian Exposition.

 

From 1889 until his death by a brain aneurysm at age 49 in 1902, Twatchtman taught painting at the Art Students League. He visited Gloucester, Massachusetts many times at the end of his life, making it the subject of numerous paintings.

Twatchtman’s portfolio is considered one of the finest examples of American Impressionist painting. Today, his works hang in many museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the  Cincinnati Art Museum; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

 

- Image of the Day -

 

  "Connecticut Landscape"

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