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John Henry Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné
An online catalogue by Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D., in collaboration with the Greenwich Historical Society

Catalogue Entry

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Keywords
OP.956
The Mill in Winter: A Sketch
Alternate titles: Sketch; The Mill in Winter
ca. 1892–94
Oil on canvas
25 1/4 x 15 in. (64.1 x 38.1 cm)
Stamped lower left: Twachtman Sale [1903 estate stamp]
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Gift of Andrew Carnegie (13.8)
Provenance
(American Art Galleries, New York, Twachtman estate sale, March 24, 1903, no. 70);
to Edward A. Rorke, Brooklyn;
(Silas S. Dustin, New York);
Andrew Carnegie, Pittsburgh;
gift to present collection, 1913.
Exhibitions
1903–I American Art Galleries
American Art Galleries, New York, Sale of the Work of the Late John H. Twachtman, exhibition and auction, March 19–24, 1903, no. 70, as The Mill in Winter.
1957 Carnegie Institute
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, American Classics of the Nineteenth Century, October 18–December 1, 1957, no. 104, as Sketch. Traveled to: Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, January 5–26, 1958; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, February 14–March 16, 1958; Baltimore Museum of Art, April 8–May 4, 1958; Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire, May 22–June 25, 1958.
Literature
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. 560 (catalogue A, no. 407), as The Mill in Winter. (Hale concordance).
Carnegie Institute 1973
Carnegie Institute. Catalogue of the Painting Collection, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Institute, 1973, p. 171, as The Mill in Winter.
Strazdes 1992
Strazdes, Diana. American Paintings and Sculpture to 1945 in the Carnegie Museum of Art. New York: Hudson Hills in association with the Carnegie Museum of Art, 1992, p. 457, as The Mill in Winter: A Sketch.
Commentary

This painting was included in Twachtman's 1903 estate sale as The Mill in Winter. However, the title does not fit the scene because the square building at the terminus of the diagonal path—extending right to left—is the Twachtman family barn in Greenwich, observed by the artist from the hill to the west of his home, probably before he extended the dwelling farther westward in the mid-1890s. The dovecote, seen in other barn images, does not appear to be present here. Left in a more sketchlike mode than other barn views, the painting demonstrates the blue shadows for which Twachtman's work exemplified Impressionism in his era. The barn, its white walls shimmering in a rosy sunlit glow, is framed by lavender hills, giving it monumentality in the composition.