John Henry Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné
An online catalogue by Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D., in collaboration with the Greenwich Historical Society
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Keywords
OP.817
Windy Day
Alternate titles: Early Spring; Spring Landscape (Early Spring)
ca. 1888
Oil on canvas
17 1/8 x 21 13/16 in. (43.5 x 55.5 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman–
Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota, Duluth, Gift of Mrs. E. L. (Alice Tweed) Tuohy (D59.x34)
Exhibitions
1889–I Fifth Avenue Art Galleries
Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, New York, Paintings in Oil and Pastel by J. Alden Weir and J. H. Twachtman, February 1–7, 1889, no. 54, as Windy Day, 17 7/8 x 22 in.
1989 Plains Art Museum
Plains Art Museum, Moorhead, Minnesota, A Century of American Painting from the Tweed Museum of Art, November 9, 1989–January 7, 1990, as Spring Landscape (Early Spring).
1997 University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota, Duluth, American Paintings from the Tweed Museum of Art, 1997–1999, as Spring Landscape (Early Spring). Traveled to: Minnesota Museum of American Art, Saint Paul, February 22–May 18, 1997; Muscarelle Museum of Art, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, October 25–December 7, 1997; Greenville County Museum of Art, South Carolina, January 15–February 27, 1998; Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University, Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, August 23–October 4, 1998; Rock County Historical Society, Janesville, Wisconsin, November 2–December 31, 1998; Wriston Art Center, Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin, January 23–March 14, 1999.
Literature
New York Herald 1889
"Fair Prices for Pictures: The Twachtman-Weir Sale at the Fifth Avenue Galleries." New York Herald, February 8, 1889, p. 6, as Windy Day.
Studio 1889
"Paintings and Pastels by J. H. Twachtman and J. Alden Weir." Studio 4 (February 1889), p. 43, as Windy Day.
Sun 1889–II
"Weir and Twachtman Pictures." Sun (New York), February 8, 1889, p. 3, as Windy Day.
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. 510 (catalogue G, no. 717), as Windy Day. (Hale concordance).
Sweeney 1982
Sweeney, J. Gray. American Painting at the Tweed Museum of Art and Glensheen. Duluth, Minn.: University of Minnesota, 1982, pp. 80, 83 ill. in b/w, 84, as Spring Landscape (Early Spring).
Commentary

This painting was titled Windy Day in the 1889 sale of the work of Twachtman and Julian Alden Weir, held at the Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, New York (see Exhibitions). It was illustrated in the catalogue by an etching that bears the same name (E.801). 

Writing for the Studio magazine, a critic observed the painting's "white clouds, its blue sky and green trees.” Commenting on the painting, along with other works on view, the writer stated: “There is no better work done to-day, in any country, not in Paris or Holland, than was to be found in this room.” According to the New York Sun, the painting sold for $275, which was among the highest prices reached in the sale. 

The painting is possibly a view looking in the opposite direction down Nod Hill Road in Branchville, Connecticut, from that depicted in Road to Ridgefield (OP.816), where a gate similar to that here on the left is on the right. Twachtman conveys the beauty and sturdiness of roads that carved through the countryside before the advent of railways, while expressing the effect of sunlight and shadow through windswept cirrus clouds and their effect on the landscape.