John Twachtman (1853-1902) and the American scene in the late nineteenth century: The frontier within the terrain of the familiar.
Item
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Title
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John Twachtman (1853-1902) and the American scene in the late nineteenth century: The frontier within the terrain of the familiar.
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Identifier
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AAI9639442
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identifier
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9639442
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Creator
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Peters, Lisa Nicol.
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Contributor
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Adviser: William H. Gerdts
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Date
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1995
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Art History | American Studies | Biography
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Abstract
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The art of John Henry Twachtman exemplifies the essential changes that occurred in late nineteenth-century American landscape painting. A leading figure in a cosmopolitan generation of artists, Twachtman studied in Munich and Paris, painted in several prominent European art capitals, and was influenced by many aspects of European painting. After settling in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1889, he formulated a highly original Impressionist style combining vital, direct brushwork, an abstract understanding of form, and a sensitivity to tonal harmonies. He used this approach to create his best known images, intimate views of his Greenwich home and property in all seasons of the year.;Most previous studies on Twachtman have concentrated purely on the formal dimensions of his art, downplaying the impact of his European influences. I explore Twachtman's sources and demonstrate their importance to his stylistic evolution. I argue, however, that the changes in Twachtman's treatment reflected not only the impact of new influences, but also his responses to the places where he worked and lived. In each of his painting locales, including Venice; New York harbor; the Jersey City shore; the Cincinnati suburbs; Tuscany; Holland; Normandy; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Newport, Rhode Island; Greenwich; and Gloucester, Massachusetts, he modified his approach to convey his impressions of his sites. Often drawn to types of landscapes that had not been painted previously, he recorded new realities of urban, suburban, and resort life. His works thus reflect fundamental changes that occurred in America during a period of tremendous change. He expressed the dynamic qualities of the city in the 1870s and the decade's optimistic attitude toward urban progress. Conversely, in the late 1880s and 1890s, he conveyed the antipathy toward the city that arose toward the century's end when the American suburbs expanded into anti-urban, countricized enclaves and coastal areas became popular places to escape the bustle and noise of the metropolis. His works also reflect the American response to the idea that the nation's western frontier had closed. Finding freshness and rejuvenation in nature within the limited arena of his Greenwich property, he perpetuated the frontier experience, seen by Frederick Jackson Turner and others as still important to the American psyche, within a familiar, private domain, a type of settled landscape that characterized much of the country at the turn of the century.;I approach Twachtman's work both from a monographic and a thematic viewpoint, exploring images chronologically and within a socio-cultural framework. As Twachtman's art characterizes a changing American scene, it illuminates the cultural history of his era.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
