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John Henry Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné
An online catalogue by Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D., in collaboration with the Greenwich Historical Society

Catalogue Entry

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Keywords
P.705
Landscape with Windmill
Alternate title: Mill in Holland
ca. 1885
Pastel on paper
19 5/8 x 25 1/8 in. (49.8 x 63.8 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman
Smith College Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. William Dodge Gray (Henrietta Sheldon Seelye ’98) (1964.14)
Provenance
Probably (Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, New York, Twachtman–Weir sale, February 7, 1889, lot 4, as Mill in Holland, 19 x 24 1/2 in.);
Laurenus Clark Seelye, president of Smith College;
by descent to his daughter, Mrs. William Dodge Gray (Henrietta Sheldon Seelye);
gift to present collection, 1964.
Exhibitions
1889–I Fifth Avenue Art Galleries probably
Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, New York, Paintings in Oil and Pastel by J. Alden Weir and J. H. Twachtman, February 1–7, 1889, no. 4, as Mill in Holland, 19 x 24 1/2 in.
Literature
Sun 1889–II probably
"Weir and Twachtman Pictures." Sun (New York), February 8, 1889, p. 3, as Mill in Holland.
Hale 1957
Hale, John Douglass. "Life and Creative Development of John H. Twachtman." 2 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1957. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, 1958, vol. 2, p. 529 (catalogue G, no. 963), as Mill in Holland. (Hale concordance).
Peters 1995
Peters, Lisa N. "John Twachtman (1853–1902) and the American Scene in the Late Nineteenth Century: The Frontier within the Terrain of the Familiar." 2 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, City University of New York, 1995. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International, 1996, vol. 1, p. 209; vol. 2, p. 727 ill. in b/w (fig. 195), as Landscape with Windmill.
Commentary

This may have been among the works Twachtman used in the course of creating his large oil, Windmills (OP.749), the key work in his 1886 solo exhibition at J. Eastman Chase's Gallery in Boston, where it was shown with the title of Hollandsch Diep. Depicting the same locale, an estuary to the south of Dordrecht formed by the Rhine and Meuse, this pastel features a windmill that resembles the largest mill in the oil (at the left), even in the position of its blades. Both works include patches of wildflowers, a velvety moist ground of high grass, and high translucent clouds in motion. 

Based on its dimensions and subject matter, Landscape with Windmill was probably titled Mill in Holland in the sale of the works of Twachtman and Julian Alden Weir at the Fifth Avenue Art Galleries in February 1889. The work was one of two Dutch pastels in the exhibition; the other was a pastel shown was A Windmill, which is probably The Windmill (P.706).

At this point, in pastel, Twachtman emulated his oil painting method, building up layers of blended hues to produce an opaque surface, although here he left the orange-toned paper exposed for the path that recedes into the distance. He also used quick touches of color to render patches of grass and wildflowers, anticipating the approach more in keeping with the spontaneity of the Impressionist method that he would soon adopt. 

Twachtman illustrated this scene in his etching Mill in Holland (E.702), simplifying and depicting the wildflowers closer to the picture plane and lowering the height of the windmill.