Icebound

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Edward Hopper

American Art

c. 1889

John Henry Twachtman
American, 1853–1902

Around 1889, after years of training and travel, John Henry Twachtman purchased a seventeen-acre farm in Greenwich, Connecticut. During the next decade, he created some of his finest works there. Like the French Impressionists, whose style greatly influenced him, Twachtman found an inexhaustible source of subjects and inspiration in his local surroundings. Icebound illustrates a favorite theme: a stream descending from rocks to a serene pool surrounded by hemlock trees. In the hushed tranquility of this winter scene, Twachtman achieved a fine compositional balance between spontaneity and control. Movement is implied despite the frozen stillness suggested by the title and the muted tonal harmonies of the painting’s limited white and blue palette. Sinuous arabesques of white snow against blue water accentuate the stream’s descent. Thick brushstrokes of white and streaks of violet amid the blue of the water enliven the picture’s surface. Vivid red-orange leaves serve both as distinctive accents against the dominant white and as reminders of an autumnal life that has not surrendered to the relentless change of seasons.

Currently Off View: American Art

Artist: John Henry Twachtman
Title: Icebound
Origin: Connecticut
Date: 1884–1894
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed, lower right : "J. H. Twachtman"
Dimensions: 64. 2 × 76.6 cm (25 1/4 × 30 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Friends of American Art Collection
Reference Number: 1917.200

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–Jun 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–Jun 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, Jun 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; traveled to Iowa, Davenport Municipal Art Gallery, May 19–Jun 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, Jul 1–Aug 26, 1973, no. 60, ill. p. 128 as Snow–Bound; traveled to New York, Museum of American Art, Sep 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, Jun 30–Jul 31, 1976, no. 28; traveled to Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Museum of Modern Art, Aug 20–Sep 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; traveled to University of California at Los Angeles, Frederick S. Wight Gallery, Mar 9–May 4, 1980; Evanston, Terra Museum of American Art, May 16–Jun 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.; traveled to National Academy of Design, May 8–Aug 16, 1987; Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art, Sep 10–Nov 1, 1987.
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Impressionism and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885–1915, May 10–Jul 24, 1994; traveled to 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; traveled to Newark Museum, Mar 7–May 31, 1998; Columbus Museum of Art, Jul 10–Sep 13, 1998.
Cincinnati Art Museum, John Twachtman: An American Impressionist, Jun 6–Sep 5, 1999, traveled to 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.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email .