Background
Mr. Twachtman was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, on August 4, 1853, to Frederick Christian, a decorator of window shades, and Sophia Droege Twachtman.
University of Cincinnati.
Art Academy of Cincinnati.
Academy of Fine Arts.
Mr. Twachtman was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, on August 4, 1853, to Frederick Christian, a decorator of window shades, and Sophia Droege Twachtman.
John Twachtman worked as a decorator of window shades, as had his father. At the same time he took night classes at the Ohio Mechanics Institute (later University of Cincinnati) and then enrolled at the McMicken School of Design (which later became the Art Academy of Cincinnati), where Twachtman studied with Frank Duveneck. Duveneck was a recognized painter who had recently returned from Munich, and he urged Twachtman to go to Munich to attend the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. In 1875 Twachtman went to Munich, and during his European stay he accompanied Duveneck and his fellow Munich colleague, William M. Chase, on a painting trip to Venice.
In 1878, Mr. Twachtman exhibited with the newly formed Society of American Artists in New York; he was elected a member the following year. The same year he taught briefly at the Women's Art Association of Cincinnati, but spent much of his time in the east. In 1879 Twachtman met and began a lifelong friendship with J. Alden Weir. In 1881, he made a wedding trip to Europe, joining Weir and his brother John on a painting expedition to Holland and Belgium.
Between 1883 and 1885 John Twachtman studied, traveled, and worked in France, meeting other American Impressionists Childe Hassam, Willard Metcalf, and Theodore Robinson in Paris. By 1886 Mr. Twachtman and his family had returned to the United States, probably spending much of their time in New York. During the winter of 1886-1887, the artist supported them by painting Civil War battle scenes on a cyclorama constructed in Chicago. In 1889 Twachtman began teaching at the Art Students League, and, with the profits from a cyclorama he had painted with Arthur B. Davies in Chicago, he purchased a home in Connecticut near Weir's farm.
While living in the country Twachtman exhibited in New York throughout the 1890s. In 1893 his work was included in an American Art Galleries exhibition with that of J. Alden Weir (alongside an exhibition of works by Claude Monet and Paul-Albert Besnard).
Hemlock Pool
Meadow Flowers (Golden Rod and Wild Aster)
Coney Island From Brighton Pier
Niagara
Irises
Connecticut Landscape
Afternoon Shadows
Barnyard
Winter in Cincinnati
Campo Santa Marta
On the Terrace
In the Garden
Sailing Boats, Dieppe Harbor
Cos Cob
Study of a Landscape
Waterfall, Yellowstone
Windmills
Emerald Pool
Flowers
Flower Still Life
Twachtman's House
Falls in January
Round Hill Road
Flowers
Road Scene, Cincinnati
Dock at Newport
Along the River, Winter
Abandoned Mill
Niagara Falls
Scene along a Dutch River
Canyon in the Yellowstone
Yellowstone Park
The Rainbow's Source
The Rapids, Yellowstone
Back of Coney Island
A Garden Path
Winter Landscape
Fountain, World's Fair
End of Winter
Tiger Lilies
Waterfall in Yellowstone
Twachtman's Home, Avondale, Ohio
My Summer Studio
Landscape
Country House in Winter
Snow Scene
Wildflowers
The Inlet
The Landing, Newport
Niagara Gorge
The Cascade in Spring
The Ledges
Spring Landscape
View near Polling
Boat at Bulkhead
May Morn
The Portico
Wildflowers
Beach at Squam
Venice
The Shore
Near Paris
Road over the Hill
Gray Day
Connecticut Shore, Winter
Fog and Small Sailboats
Bridgeport
Branchville
New York Harbor
Winter Landscape with Barn
A Venetian Scene
Spring Stream
Winter Landscape
Oyster Boats, North River
Winter
From the Upper Terrace
Tree by a Road
Dutch Landscape
Landscape
The Cascade
The Brook, Greenwich, Connecticut (aka Horseneck Falls, Greenwich, Connecticut)
Sailing in the Mist
Niagara Falls
Mother and Child
Snow Scene
San Trovaso Square, Venice
Tiger Lilies
A Summer Day
Spring Morning
Azaleas
Waterside Scene
Morning Glory Pool, Yellowstone
Winter
Road Scene
The Artist's House through the Trees (also known as Autumn Afternoon)
Waterfall
Gloucester Harbor
Path in the Hills, Branchville, Connecticut
Bloody Run
Reflections
Hollyhocks
Harbor Scene
Mother and Child
Avondale Ohio
House in Snow
The White Bridge
Spring
Spring Landscape (also known as Spring in Marin County)
Newport Harbor
Fish Sheds and Schooner, Gloucester
Miami Canal, Cincinnati
Study of a Head
Gloucester Schooner
Waterfall, Greenwich
Trees in a Nursery
Emerald Pool 2
Summer Landscape
Sailing in the Mist
Gloucester Harbor
Ship and Dock, Venice
End of the Pier, New York Harbor
Farm Scene
Snow Scene at Utica
Artist's House, Greenwich, Connecticut
Cincinnati Landscape
Edge of the Emerald Pool, Yellowstone
Venice
Coastal View
Snowbound
French River Scene
Flower Garden
Hayrick
Hollyhocks
Haystacksat Edge of Woods
In the Sunlight
Tuckerman's Ravine
Mouth of the Seine
New York Harbor
Canal, Venice
Winter Scene
Wild Flowers
The Cabbage Patch
Etang (also known as The Pond)
Evening
Middlebrook Farm
Icebound
Upland Pastures
Springtime
Brook in Winter
Windmill in the Dutch Countryside
Niagara Falls
Artist's Home Seen from the Back
Old Holley House
Greenwich Garden
Windmills, Dordrecht
Three Trees
The Quai, Venice
My House
Paradise Rocks, Newport
Landscape With Houses and Stream
The Grand Canal, Venice
Weeds and Flowers
Sea Scene
Landscape
Court of Honor, World's Columbian Exposiition
Brook among the Trees
Summer
The Chicago World's Fair, Illinois Building
Hemlock Pool (aka Autumn)
The Brook, Greenwich, Connecticut
Dredging in the East River
An Early Winter
The Little Bridge
Dark Trees, Cincinnati
View along a River
The Torrent
Harbor View
Figure in a Landscape
Venetian Sailing Vessel
Branchville Fields
Artist's Home in Autumn, Greenwich, Connecticut
Last Touch of Sun
The Winding Brook
View of Venice
The White Bridge
Boats at Anchor
November Haze (aka Upland Pastures)
Moonlight, Flanders
Landscape
View of Venice
The Hidden Pool
Frozen Brook
The White Bridge
Arques Battle
Abandoned Mill
Quotations:
"You do not know how tempting every opportunity is to me, and how I long to go in quest of fame and fortune. Why should it be either and why can't happiness be complete without either or both?"
"In my mind I have finer pictures than ever before. Ten thousand pictures come and go every day and those are the only complete pictures painted, pictures that shall never be polluted by paint and canvas."
"What tasks the man did set himself in the painting of a white apron with which he was as much in love as the face of a person."
"Winter... that feeling of quiet and all nature is hushed to silence."
"Someday some of you will become painters, and a few of you will do distinguished work, and then the American public will turn you down for second and third-rate French painters."
"A cloudy sky to make it mysterious and a fog to increase the mystery. Just imagine how suggestive things are..."
"I feel more and more contented with the isolation of country life. To be isolated is a fine thing and we are all then nearer to nature. I can see how necessary it is to live always in the country at all seasons of the year."
"To be isolated is a fine thing and we are then nearer to nature."
John Twachtman was a member of The Ten.
Twachtman was a difficult and melancholy personality, and at the height of his career he was alone, depressed, and estranged from his family.
Quotes from others about the person
Duncan Phillips: "Twachtman’s was perhaps the finest sensibility in American art."
In 1881 John Twachtman married Martha Scudder. Their first child was born in 1882.