Gloucester, Fisherman's Houses (Primary Title)

During the final three summers of his life, Twachtman traveled from his Connecticut farm to the fishing town of Gloucester, Massachusetts. There, he depicted the harbor, boats, and old wharves in a distinctive bright palette, his thin application of pigment purposefully exposing both canvas and primer. Twachtman wrote that he wanted to find “joy in the first attack,” by working quickly and spontaneously. He was not the only the artist capturing life in the seaport town at the turn of the century. A local newspaper reported in 1900 that resident fishermen were tiring of the superficial renderings of their hard life—“They call it ‘picturesque,’ b’lieve, but it certain isn’t sense.”