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.512
Gray Day
Alternate title: Silver Poplars
1882
Oil on canvas
22 x 28 in. (55.9 x 71.1 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: J. H. Twachtman– 1882–
Private collection
Image: Roz Akin
Exhibitions
1883 Society of American Artists probably
American Art Gallery, New York, Sixth Annual Exhibition, Society of American Artists, March 26–April 28, 1883, no. 128, as Silver Poplars.
1883 Society of American Artists, Boston
Society of American Artists, Boston, Sixth Annual Exhibition, May 7–June 3, 1883, no. 128, as Silver Poplars.
1930 Babcock
Babcock Galleries, New York, Paintings, Water Colors, Etchings by American Artists, Summer 1930, no. 3, as Gray Day.
1931 Babcock
Babcock Galleries, New York, Paintings, Water Colors, Etchings by American Artists, Summer 1931, no. 42, as Gray Day.
1936–I Babcock
Babcock Gallery, New York, Paintings by American Masters, March 1936, no. 13, as Gray Day.
1942–I Babcock
Babcock Galleries, New York, Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels by John H. Twachtman, February 9–28, 1942, no. 3, as Gray Day.
2006 Spanierman
Spanierman Gallery, New York, John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter," May 4–June 24, 2006. (Nelson 2006); (Parkes 2006); (Peters 2006–I); (Peters 2006–II); (Peters 2006–III); (Peters 2006–IV), no. 13, as Gray Day, shown only in New York. Traveled to: Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, July 13–October 29, 2006.
Literature
Nation 1883 probably
"The Sixth Annual Exhibition of the Society of American Artists." Nation 36 (April 12, 1883), p. 328, as Silver Poplars.
New-York Tribune 1883–II probably
"Art News and Comments: The Society of American Artists, Second Notice." New-York Tribune, April 15, 1883, p. 5, as Silver Poplars.
Sun 1883–II probably
"Art Exhibition: The Society of American Artists." Sun (New York), March 25, 1883, p. 5, as Silver Poplars.
Parke-Bernet 1948–I
Fine English and American Furniture and Decorations. Auction catalogue, February 6–7, 1948. New York: Parke-Bernet, 1948, lot 81 ill. in b/w, as Gray 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. 452 (catalogue G, no. 224), as Gray Day. (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. 165; vol. 2, p. 701 ill. in b/w (fig. 162), as Gray Day.
Peters 2006–II
Peters, Lisa N. "Twachtman's Realist Art and the Aesthetic Liberation of Modern Life." In John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter", by Lisa N. Peters. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Spanierman), p. 50, as Gray Day.
Peters 2006–IV
Peters, Lisa N. "Catalogue." In John Twachtman (1853–1902): A "Painter's Painter", by Lisa N. Peters. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Spanierman), pp. 104–5 ill. in color, as Gray Day.
Commentary

Based on descriptions in reviews and this painting's date, it was probably the work Twachtman exhibited as Silver Poplars in the sixth annual of the Society of American Artists in 1883. Reviewing the show, a critic for the New York Sun stated:

Twachtman’s "Silver Poplars" is more of a picture and is more interesting than any other landscape in the room because it fixes for some years at least, on the canvas a very transient and very beautiful natural effect which has not, to our knowledge been previously attempted. The subject is a green field at the back of an ordinary farm house in early spring. There is a row of leafless poplars to the left and another to the right. The sky is filled with a mist of fine drifting snow, not formed into flakes and overhead the white snow clouds, all on a slant, are hurrying by. From the way in which the picture has been painted it is doubtful whether it will last; but its success, for the time, is indisputable.

A writer in the Nation was less enthusiastic, commenting: "[Silver Poplars mostly depicts] a flat space of dull green paint, with some dirty gray rarified brush lines drawn through it and a space of ungraduated leaden gray above for a sky." 

This work's title was recorded as Gray Day when it was exhibited at Babcock Galleries in 1930. It remained at Babcock until 1942, where that February it was included in a solo exhibition.