Catalogue Entry
Based on its dimensions and subject, this work can be identified as the pastel included in the sale of the work of Twachtman and Julian Alden Weir, held February 7, 1889 at the Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, as ‘Neath Summer Skies. The work's measurements match those listed in the catalogue: 17 x 21 inches. According to a report in the New York Sun, the pastel was purchased from the sale for $36, but the fact that it remained in the hands of a descendant of the artist suggests that it was probably bought by a friend and returned to Twachtman.
In the work, Twachtman focused attentively on the pastoral scene’s varied elements. He applied pastel with control and fluidity, conveying the presence of a brisk wind in the trees, the clouds forming dense masses, and the solidity of the farmhouse and barn facing a road that continues into the distance. The linkage among Twachtman’s works reveals that they must be considered together to be understood; this is apparent in his depiction of this same site in two oil paintings The House in Nodd (OP.815) and Road to Ridgefield (OP.816). The latter is the closest to this scene, but using a more rectangular composition, Twachtman gave a larger role to the farmhouse and barn, giving its setting less significance. The work perhaps depicts the same road featured in the oil and etching each titled Windy Day (OP.817 and E.801); it possibly depicts Nod Hill Road, on which Weir’s farm was located.
Twachtman was inconsistent in the titling of his works, and it is likely that he showed this pastel as The Farmer’s House in his 1891 exhibition at Wunderlich Galleries. The critic for the Brooklyn Eagle considered The Farmer's House to be "rather sweet in color," noting that it had something more of the substance than most of the work; there is a sense of air in it, too.”[1]
[1] Brooklyn Eagle 1891.