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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P.706
The Windmill
Alternate titles: A Windmill; Mill on the Dunes; On the Dunes
ca. 1885
Pastel on paper
19 3/4 x 25 1/2 in. (50.2 x 64.8 cm)
Signed lower left: J. H. Twachtman–
Private collection
Image: Roz Akin
Exhibitions
1886 J. Eastman Chase's Gallery probably
J. Eastman Chase's Gallery, Boston, Paintings and Pastels by John H. Twachtman, January 19–30, 1886, no. 18, as Mill on the Dunes.
1886 St. Botolph Club probably
St. Botolph Club, Boston, Spring Exhibition, April 15–May 1, 1886, no. 101.
1888 Wunderlich probably
H. Wunderlich & Co, New York, Second Exhibition of the Painters in Pastel, May 7–26, 1888, no. 62, as A Windmill.
1888 Chicago Inter-State probably
Art Hall, Chicago, Sixteenth Annual Exhibition, Inter-State Industrial Exposition, September 5–October 20, 1888, no. 410, as A Windmill.
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. 6, as On the Dunes, 24 1/2 in, width x 19 in, height.
2011 Spanierman
Spanierman Gallery, New York, Seeing Abstractly: Works on Paper and Small Oils by John Henry Twachtman, December 15, 2011–January 14, 2012. (Exhibition catalogue: Peters 2011), no. 6, as The Windmill.
Literature
Boston Evening Transcript 1886 probably
"Paintings and Pastels by J. H. Twachtman." Boston Evening Transcript, January 23, 1886, p. 6, as Mill on the Dunes.
Art Amateur 1888–II probably
"The Pastel Exhibition." Art Amateur 19 (June 1888), p. 3, as A Windmill.
New York Herald 1888–III probably
"Painters and Pastels: The Exhibition of the New York Exponents in Colored Crayons." New York Herald, May 5, 1888, p. 5, as A Windmill.
New-York Tribune 1889–II
"Pictures by Messrs. Weir and Twachtman." New-York Tribune, February 7, 1889, p. 7, as On the Dunes.
Sotheby's New York 2008–II
American Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture. Auction catalogue, May 22, 2008. New York: Sotheby's, 2008, lot 81 ill. in color, as The Windmill.
Peters 2011
Peters, Lisa N. Seeing Abstractly: Works on Paper and Small Oils by John Henry Twachtman. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2011. Exhibition catalogue (2011 Spanierman), pp. 4 ill. in color, 12 ill. in color, as The Windmill.
Doyle 2012
European, American, Modern, and Contemporary Art. Auction catalogue, November 13, 2012. New York: Doyle, 2012, lot 402 ill. in color, as The Windmill.
Commentary

This pastel was probably used by Twachtman to create his large oil Windmills (OP.749), a work he exhibited at his 1886 solo exhibition at J. Eastman Chase's Gallery as Hollandsch Diep, its title indicating its depiction of the estuary to the south of Dordrecht that was formed by the Rhine and Meuse rivers. Portraying the same locale, this pastel may have been the work included in the exhibition as Mill on the Dunes, described in the Boston Evening Transcript as featuring a "light sky that is delicious." The review commented that the "bits of blue that break through the fleecy clouds are full of light and sun, which can rarely be said of blue sky as it is generally painted.”

The work was probably also A Windmill, in the second exhibition of the Society of Painters in Pastel, held at Wunderlich & Company, New York, in May 1888.  A reviewer for the Art Amateur wrote: "We have too few landscapists like Mr. Twachtman. His windmill on a low sand dune, with a pool and reeds in the foreground, was what may be called, in the best sense of the term, a poem in color, though as well made out and fully as realistic as anything in the exhibition." A reviewer for the New York Herald commented: "Scenes in Holland furnish the material for J. H. Twachtman's artistically handled crayon point. The largest is a fine windmill scene. Slight but effective Holland river sketches remind one in their simplicity and suggestiveness of Venetian dry points." In the fall, Twachtman sent on many of the pastels shown at Wunderlich to the Chicago Inter-State Exposition, including A Windmill.