Focus on Landscape, Branchville and discuss the Description.
The same height and just one inch wider than Arques-la-Bataille, Landscape, Branchville is a work of vastly different effect, and represents a transitional moment in Twachtman's career. Instead of a consciously formal and carefully arranged composition— Arques-la-Bataille was painted in the studio from sketches— Branchville is characterized by a vigorous spontaneity that suggests plein-air painting. Rather than choosing a subject of natural grandeur for large-scale treatment, as had painters of the Hudson River School, Twachtman painted an apparently unremarkable and intimate view.Landscape, Branchville depicts the landscape, looking to the west, from the front door of Weir's home. Sky comprises the upper third of the painting, with the land carved into diagonals by a winding path. A large tree to the right of center, extending to the top of the canvas, is the sole vertical stanchion. Composed of patches of green and reddish ocher, the ground plane is loosely painted, with the undertone of the canvas showing through toward the bottom of the canvas. The handling gibes with Twachtman's prioritization of breadth over detail. It may also reflect an increasing interest in French Impressionism, examples of which had been exhibited in New York in 1886.The forms of a similar composition in pastel entitled Tree by a Road (Cincinnati Art Museum), have been further distilled, and may have been painted after the oil.
Impressionism right Hudson River School French Impressionism plein-air