John Henry Twachtman

American, 1853-1902

BiographyJohn Henry Twachtman, 1853 – 1902, was an American painter best known for his impressionist landscapes, though his painting style varied widely through his career. Art historians consider Twachtman's style of American Impressionism to be among the more personal and experimental of his generation. He was a member of "The Ten", a loosely-allied group of American artists dissatisfied with professional art organizations, who banded together in 1898 to exhibit their works as a stylistically unified group.

Twachtman was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and received his first art training there under Frank Duveneck. Like most artists of the era, Twachtman then proceeded to Europe to further his education. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich from 1875 to 1877, and visited Venice with Duveneck and William Merritt Chase. His landscapes from this time exhibit the loosely brushed, shadowy technique taught at Munich. Twachtman also learned etching, and sometimes carried etching plates with him that he could use to spontaneously record a scene.

After a brief return to America, Twachtman studied from 1883 to 1885 at the Académie Julian in Paris, and his paintings dramatically shifted towards a soft, gray and green tonalist style. During this time he painted what some art historians consider to be his greatest masterpieces, including Arques-la-Bataille, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and Springtime, in the collection of the Cincinnati Art Museum.

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