Fishing Boats at Gloucester

John Henry Twachtman was one of the foremost American Impressionists, and this late work painted at Gloucester, Massachusetts shortly before his death in 1902 reveals the atmospheric dissolution he had been pursuing throughout his career. Gloucester's harbor had attracted painters since Fitz Henry Lane in the mid-nineteenth century, and Twachtman's series there responds to a long tradition while pushing it toward painterly abstraction. Unlike many of his contemporaries who used Gloucester for picturesque genre, Twachtman focused on light and atmosphere, dissolving the fishing boats into luminous haze. The works were shown posthumously as part of a critical appreciation of his contribution to American Impressionism.

Boats are suggested by loose, wet strokes of grey-blue and white barely distinguished from the surrounding harbor water. Paint is applied thinly and with great spontaneity; the surface shimmers with unblended touches of cream, grey, and pale blue. The horizon line is barely articulated.