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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Catalogue Entry

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Keywords
OP.803
Old Mill
Alternate titles: Mill in the Woods; The Mill; The Mill in the Woods
ca. 1888–89
Oil on canvas
18 x 24 in. (45.7 x 61 cm)
Signed lower right: J. H. Twachtman
Private collection
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. 72, as Mill in the Woods, 16 1/2 x 22 1/2 in. see Critic 1889–I.
Literature
Critic 1889–I probably
"Paintings by Weir and Twachtman." Critic new series 11 (February 9, 1889), p. 69, as Mill in the Woods.
New York Times 1889–I probably
"The Weir–Twachtman Paintings." New York Times, February 3, 1889, p. 13, as Mill in the Woods.
Sun 1889–II probably
"Weir and Twachtman Pictures." Sun (New York), February 8, 1889, p. 3, as Mill in the Woods.
Stevens 1910
Stevens, Nina Spaulding. "A Notable Collection of American Paintings." Fine Arts Journal 22 (March 1910), p. 157 ill. in b/w, as The Mill.
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. 473 (catalogue G, no. 409), as Mill in the Woods. (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. 254; vol. 2, p. 788 ill. in b/w (fig. 262), as Old Mill.
Commentary

When this painting was included with the title of Mill in the Woods (16 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches) in the sale of the work of Twachtman and Julian Alden Weir at the Fifth Avenue Art Galleries on February 7, 1889, it drew the notice of a reviewer for the New York Times, who commented that it was “painted in the grays that Frenchmen love, broadly yet lightly with poetic appreciation of the desolation of the place.”  

It is possible that this is a different view of the mill featured by Twachtman in a pastel (Abandoned Mill, Branchville, Connecticut, P.800) and an etching (Abandoned Mill, E.800).