Icebound
John Henry Twachtman (American, 1853–1902)
c. 1889
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 64.2 × 76.6 cm (25 5/16 × 30 3/16 in.)
- Culture
- Greenwich
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of the Americas
- Credit line
- Friends of American Art Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
During the last decade of his life, John Henry Twachtman frequently painted views of the landscape surrounding his home in Greenwich, Connecticut. In a departure from typically barren images of winter, he enjoyed depicting the beauty of the frozen terrain, believing that it was conducive to contemplation and regeneration. The dense layers of paint in Icebound mimic the accumulation of snow on frozen ground, and the sinuous curves that define the snow and ice against the water suggest movement in an otherwise tranquil environment. Almost square in format, the painting’s harmonious composition exemplifies Twachtman’s opinion that “never is nature more lovely than when it is snowing.”
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
