John Henry Twachtman was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1853. He studied at the McMiken School of Design. Like many American artists during the late nineteenth century, Twachtman sought European training to supplement his initial study in the United States. Twachtman painted quiet, intimate views of the landscape. His goal was to capture the emotion a place evokes in the viewer instead of merely expressing the perception of light and its effects on the landscape.

Inner Harbor, Gloucester, c. 1900 belongs to a long tradition of images depicting this Massachusetts town and its surrounding area. By the late 1890s, Gloucester had become one of the best known artists’ colonies in the United States. Although Twachtman certainly would have known about Gloucester’s artistic appeal, his old friend and teacher Frank Duveneck, who summered there after 1898, most likely convinced him to visit. After the success of his first stay in 1900, Twachtman returned the next two summers. Inner Harbor, Gloucester was completed on one of these trips. The sketch-like quality of the painting and the loose brushstrokes of color are indicative of Twachtman’s personal Impressionist style.