Icebound

c. 1889

John Henry Twachtman
American, 1853–1902

During the last decade of his life, John Henry Twachtman frequently painted views of the landscape surrounding his home on Round Hill Road in Greenwich, Connecticut. In a departure from typically barren images of winter, he enjoyed depicting the beauty of the frozen terrain, believing that it was conducive to contemplation and regeneration. The dense, gradually built-up layers of paint in Icebound mimic the accumulation of snow on frozen ground, and the sinuous curves that define the snow and ice against the water suggest movement in an otherwise tranquil environment. Almost square in format, the painting’s harmonious composition exemplifies Twachtman’s opinion that “never is nature more lovely than when it is snowing.”

Status: On View, Gallery 273
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: John Henry Twachtman
Title: Icebound
Place: Connecticut (Place depicted)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: c. 1889
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed, lower right : "J. H. Twachtman"
Dimensions: 642 × 76.6 cm (25 1/4 × 30 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Friends of American Art Collection
Reference Number: 1917.200
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William H. Gerdts, American Impressionism (New York: Abbeville Press, 1984), no. 120, 111, ill.
Bruce Weber and William Gerdts, In Nature’s Ways: American Landscape Painting of the Late Nineteenth Century (West Palm Beach: Norton Gallery of Art, 1987, cat. no. 69, 70 ill.
Art Institute of Chicago, Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago (Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown, 1988), 98, ill.
Patricia J. Singer, “Chilly Scenes of Winter,” Connoisseur, 220, 936, (January 1990), 24, ill.
William H. Gerdts, American Impressionism (Einsiedeln: Eidolon AG, 1990), no. 41, 76–77, ill.
William H. Gerdts, Art Across America: Two Centuries of Regional Painting 1710–1920 (New York: Abbeville Press, 1990), vol. 1, 9, 68, 118–121, 132, 177, 208, 258, 119, fig. 1.120, ill.
Judith A. Barter et al., The Age of American Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2011), no. 58.
Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago: Highlights of the Collection, (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2017) p. 76.

Art Institute of Chicago, Second Annual Exhibition, American Oil Paintings, May 30–June 30, 1889, no. 39.
New York, Clarke’s Art Rooms, Valuable Modern Paintings Which Includes the collection of John Forsythe, Esq…, Nov. 6–7, 1913, no. 119.
New York, N.E. Montross Gallery, Exhibition of Pictures by Modern American Masters, Apr. 17–May 5, 1917, no. 27.
Art Institute of Chicago, Special Exhibition of the Works in the Friends of American Art Collection, May 15–June 15, 1919.
Milwaukee Art Institute, Exhibition of Forty Paintings presented to the Art Institute of Chicago by the Friends of American Art, Mar. 1–29, 1925, no. 37, ill. as Snow Bound.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–Nov. 1, 1933, no. 485, ill. as Snow Bound.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, no. 462, as Snow Bound.
Art Institute of Chicago, Half a Century of American Art, Nov. 16, 1939–Jan. 7, 1940, no. 166, ill. pl. IV, as Snow–Bound.
Milwaukee–Downer College, Wisconsin, A Century of Landscape Painting by American Artists, 1851–1951, Feb. 13–Mar. 23, 1951, no. 8 as Snowbound.
Northampton, Massachusetts, Smith College Museum of Art, An Exhibition of American Paintings for a Professor of American Art, Charles Chetham and Charles H. Morgan, May–Jun, 1964, no. 13, ill. as Snowbound.
Springfield, Illinois State Museum, Nineteenth Century American Paintings, Mar. 5–Apr. 24, 1966; Iowa, Davenport Municipal Art Gallery, May 19–June 5, 1966.
Cincinnati Art Museum, A Retrospective Exhibition: John Henry Twachtman, Oct. 7–Nov. 20, 1966, Richard J. Boyle, no. 72, ill. p. 7 as Snow Bound (Ice Bound).
Seattle, University of Washington, Henry Gallery, The View and the Vision: Landscape Painting in Nineteenth–Century America, Jan. 2–Feb. 4, 1968, Roger B. Stein, no. 35, ill. p. 29 as Snowbound.
Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, American Impressionist Painting, July 1–Aug. 26, 1973, no. 60, ill. p. 128 as Snow–Bound; New York, Museum of American Art, Sept. 18–Nov. 2; Cincinnati Art Museum, Dec. 15–Jan. 31, 1974; Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, Mar. 8–Apr. 29.
New York, Coe Kerr Gallery, Masters of American Impressionism, Mar. 9–Apr. 3, 1976, no. 15, ill. as Snowbound.
Bonn, Germany, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Two Hundred Years of American Painting, June 30–July 31, 1976, no. 28; Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Museum of Modern Art, Aug. 20–Sept. 17, 1976; Rome, Italy, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Oct–Nov. 1976; Warsaw, National Museum of Poland, Nov. 27–Dec. 4, 1976.
Seattle, University of Washington, Henry Art Gallery, American Impressionism, Jan. 3–Mar. 2, 1980; University of California at Los Angeles, Frederick S. Wight Gallery, Mar. 9–May 4, 1980; Evanston, Terra Museum of American Art, May 16–June 22, 1980; Boston, Institute of Contemporary Art, Nov. 27–Dec. 4, 1980.
West Palm Beach, Florida, Norton Gallery of Art, John Twachtman, Connecticut Landscapes, Feb. 21–Apr. 12, 1987, no. 69, p. 70 ill.; National Academy of Design, May 8–Aug. 16, 1987; Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art, Sept. 10–Nov. 1, 1987.
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Impressionism and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885–1915, May 10–July 24, 1994; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Aug. 21–Oct. 30, 1994; Denver Art Museum Dec. 3, 1994–Feb. 5, 1995; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Mar. 12–May 14, 1995
West Palm Beach, Florida, Norton Museum of Art, George Bellows: Love of Winter, Dec. 6, 1997–Feb. 8, 1998; Newark Museum, Mar. 7–May 31, 1998; Columbus Museum of Art, July 10–Sept. 13, 1998.
Cincinnati Art Museum, John Twachtman: An American Impressionist, June 6–Sept. 5, 1999, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Oct. 16, 1999–Jan. 2, 2000 and Atlanta, High Museum of Art, Feb. 26–May 21, 2000.

John Forsythe, New York, by 1913; American Art Association, New York, 1913; N.E. Montross Gallery, New York, 1913; sold by them to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1917.

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