Description
In the mid-1880s a group of American artists joined together to promote the expressive qualities of pastel. As a member of this group, known as the Society of Painters in Pastel, Twachtman contributed actively to their last three exhibitions in 1888, 1889, and 1890. As in this example, Twachtman incorporated the tone of his papers into his imagery, so that the paper becomes a part of the design itself. The most frequent subjects of his pastels were views of the fields and undulating countryside of Greenwich, Connecticut, with gentle rhythms punctuated by occasional trees and patches of wildflowers.
Provenance
E. R. Brumley, New York, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (?-1946); Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1946-)
Accession Number
1946.72
Medium
pastel on composition board
Dimensions
Sheet: 37.9 x 45.7 cm (14 15/16 x 18 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Gift of E. R. Brumley
Tags
Drawing Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Pastel Board American
Background & Context
Background Story
Pastures, Branchville, Connecticut is a pastel from the period when Twachtman was painting in the vicinity of Branchville, near the home of his friend J. Alden Weir. The pastel medium—more direct and spontaneous than oil painting—allows Twachtman to capture the atmospheric conditions of the Connecticut pastures with a freedom and immediacy that his larger oil paintings sometimes sacrifice to compositional rigor. The composition board support gives the pastel a smooth, non-absorbent surface that allows the colors to retain their maximum brightness and vibrancy, producing the kind of luminous pastel work that distinguishes the American Impressionists' best works on paper.
Cultural Impact
Twachtman's pastels are among his most spontaneous and freely handled works, and the Branchville pastels represent his Connecticut landscape at its most intimate. The pastures, rendered in soft greens and earth tones, lack the dramatic composition of his oil paintings but gain in immediacy and freshness—qualities that the pastel medium encourages and rewards.
Why It Matters
Pastures, Branchville, Connecticut is Twachtman's Connecticut at its most spontaneous: pastel on board, the landscape rendered with a directness and freshness that his oils sometimes sacrifice to composition. The pastures are not arranged for pictorial effect—they are observed and recorded with the speed and freshness that only pastel allows.
