John Henry Twachtman

Painter and etcher, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He began as a window-shade decorator and studied under Frank Duveneck at the McMicken School of Design, Cincinnati, OH (1871). After study in Munich (1875–7), and living in Venice (1877) and Paris (1883–5), he returned to settle in Greenwich, CT (1889). His work was influenced by James Whistler and Impressionism, as seen in ‘Araques-la-Bataille’ (1885). He taught at the Art Students League, New York (1889–1902), and was a founder of the Ten (1898), an Impressionist group.

John Henry Twachtman (August 4, 1853 - August 8, 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 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. He enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in 1875 and visited Venice with Duveneck and William Merritt Chase.

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. He often painted and exhibited with fellow artist Julian Alden Weir, and spent considerable time at the art colony in Cos Cob. Twachtman taught painting at the Art Students League for many years.

In Connecticut his painting style shifted again, this time to a highly personal impressionist technique. Late in life Twachtman visited Gloucester, Massachusetts, another center of artistic activity in the late 19th century, and produced a series of vibrant scenes that anticipated a more modernist style yet to gain prominence in American art. Today, his works are in many museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Cos Cob Art Colony.