Paper Tiger Lilies

John Henry Twachtman was born on this day in 1853.

Twachtman grew up in Ohio and studied in Munich and Paris. While in France, he saw Whistler's pastels and developed a style that involved simple, suggestive planes of thinly washed color. In 1887, Twachtman returned to America and settled in Connecticut.

Although he was a respected member of the artistic community, Twachtman preferred nature to human company; "To be isolated is a fine thing and we are then nearer to nature," he wrote. He especially enjoyed painting winter scenes because of "that feeling of quiet and all nature is hushed to silence." However, his poetic technique—reducing natural forms to their essentials—is apparent in these summer tiger lilies as well.

Source: Elizabeth Prelinger. American Impressionism: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (New York and Washington, D.C.: Watson-Guptill Publications, in cooperation with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2000).

Pictured top: John Henry Twachtman, 1853–1902, Tiger Lilies, about 1900, pastel, 17 1/2 x 11 3/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly.

Pictured bottom: Portrait of John Henry Twachtman, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Peter A. Juley & Son Collection.