# Hemlock Pool

**John Henry Twachtman** (born Cincinnati, OH 1853-died Gloucester, MA 1902)  
ca. 1890-1900  
oil on canvas  
22 1/4 x 30 1/4 in. (56.5 x 76.7 cm)

Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1929.6.140. [The museum's record](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=24344).

## About this work

John Twachtman painted this scene in all different seasons. He drew inspiration from his seventeen acres of land in Greenwich, Connecticut, and his paintings of the property express the emotional and spiritual comfort he found there. This image, likely made in autumn, shows a pond located behind his house at the bottom of a steep incline along the Horseneck Brook. Twachtman created many images of streams and brooks, and these ceaselessly moving bodies of water might have held a deeper significance for him. By the time Twachtman painted his Connecticut landscapes, American artists and intellectuals had been interested in Buddhism for more than two decades, and the artist himself had studied Zen philosophy and Japanese art. (Pyne, "John Twachtman and the Therapeutic Landscape," in Chotner et al., John Twachtman: Connecticut Landscapes, 1989) This may account for the meditative quality of his pictures, the sense of looking not at an actual landscape, but at an inward image of something seen long before.

_Text from the Smithsonian American Art Museum._

John Henry Twachtman painted this in about 1890-1900, aged about 37. It is now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.

### How it was made

- **Oil paint.** Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.

### [John Henry Twachtman](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/john-henry-twachtman)

born Cincinnati, OH 1853-died Gloucester, MA 1902

## Facts

- Type: Painting
- The artist was about 37
- Real size: about 22 × 30 in (57 × 77 cm). The original is larger than our largest print, 16 × 20 in, so every print is a reduction.
- Century: 19th century
- Subjects: Water, Landscapes, Greenwich
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1874.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1874/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/hemlock-pool-si-saam-1929-6-140).