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COS COB, CONN. – “I can see how necessary it is to live always in the country – at all seasons of the year.” American Impressionist John Henry Twachtman (1853-1902) shared this certainty with close friend and fellow artist Julian Alden Weir in 1891, a few days after adding acreage to his small farmstead in Greenwich, Conn. Twachtman’s guiding belief in the inspirational power of place and nature shines through the exhibition and catalog titled “Life and Art: The Greenwich Paintings of John Henry Twachtman.” Visitors can take in the intriguing presentation at the Greenwich Historical Society in Cos Cob until January 22.

By Maggie Dimock | Connecticut Explored Inc. | Summer 2022

In a letter scribbled on stationery from The Players club in New York in the winter of 1902, now held in the Holley-MacRae Papers in the collection of the Greenwich Historical Society, American Impressionist artist John Henry Twachtman (1853 – 1902) put into words the dislocation and exhaustion of city living: “I wish I were back. The town is using me up. I am on the go from morning until night and nothing doing. Always busy about some damned unnecessary thing and spending money to beat the band and to no purpose. And I also miss the painting.”