Niagara Was Twachtman’s Rouen Cathedral

a square painting of a closeup view of niagara falls is dominated by the faint blue green precipice of the falls at top mostly obscured by impressionistic sections of rising mist in white and pale greys. moss colored rocks at the bottom and a jagged outcropping along the right side give some spatial orientation to what must have been a vantage point right up against the bottom of the falls. painted by john henry twachtman in 1893 or 1894, and being sold at christie's in january 2025.
John Henry Twachtman, Niagara Falls, 1893-94, oil on canvas, 25×25 in., at Christie’s via @pwlanier

On one of his tumblr speedruns through the treasure houses, art historian pwlanier stuck a red heart on this atmospheric painting of Niagara Falls by John Henry Twachtman. It’s in a private sale at Christie’s, and as the lately retired auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen would say, it’s a lovely thing.

I know almost nothing about Twachtman, except now I learn he visited Niagara twice and painted it multiple times. And this painting looks like it was made around the same vantage point as the one at the Smithsonian, but this tighter one, with less geology and more mist is more interesting.

two images side by side by american impressionist painter john henry twachtman depicting a tight, vertical section of niagara falls, almost entirely in faint brushstrokes of green water and white mist, with a couple of grey splotches for boulders at the base. the image on the left is more faded and indistinct, almost abstract, and the difference is especially notable in the intensity of the greens. but it turns out this is the same painting, sold at christie's twice, 23 years apart, in 2001 and 2024, and so it's either faded or has been cleaned and treated in such a way that it stripped much of the paint from 2001. we are merely stewards for these objects, people, and i think whoever stewarded this one left it in the sun too long. notably, it sold for $58k in 2001, and only $40k in 2024, so the market seems to have agreed.

More interesting still is the smaller Twachtman Niagara Falls painting Christie’s sold last October. It’s only 17 x 14, an even lovelier thing. It’s not quite as vibrant as the extremely similar one they sold in 2001. Was Twachtman in 1893 making studies of even the minutest changes in light on Niagara, like Monet was doing at Rouen Cathedral in 1892? Emerson is squealing, I’m sure.

Alas, he was not. Or not over this. Because though Niagara was Twachtman’s Rouen, that he painted at least fourteen variations of, this is the same painting. And whoever bought it in 2001 cleaned it with a scrub brush? Left it out in the sun for 23 years? I do not know. But I guess if you can wait 25 years, it’ll only get more ephemeral and atmospheric, and the price will continue to drop commensurately. Meanwhile, in the control group, the Brooklyn Museum is probably storing theirs in the dark.

Hmm, just when I think the narrative arc is complete, it seems the Christie’s painting was described in 2003 as turning up in an attic of a Twachtman family member, but the Christie’s provenance has 18 years of dealer and collector ownership befor then. Is that just the pace at which information trickles out among 19th century painting collectors?