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
E.600
Windmills
Alternate title: Dordrecht
ca. 1881
Etching on paper
4 3/4 x 6 15/16 in. (12.1 x 17.6 cm)
[Signed below plate, lower right, by the artist's son Alden: JHT per AT]
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, Gift of Mrs. Hersey Egginton in memory of her son, Everett, Class of 1921 (PR.954.20.549)
Provenance
Literature
Wickenden 1921
Wickenden, R[obert] J. The Art and Etchings of John Henry Twachtman. New York: Frederick Keppel, 1921, pp. 6 ill. in b/w, 27–28, 47, as Dordrecht.
New York Times 1921–III
"The World of Art: Etchings of John Henry Twachtman." New York Times, November 13, 1921, p. BRM5 ill. in b/w, as Dordrecht.
Baskett 1999
Baskett, Mary Welsh. John Henry Twachtman: American Impressionist Painter as Printmaker—A Catalogue Raisonné of His Prints. Bronxville, N.Y.: M. Hausberg, 1999, pp. 28, 80–81, ill. in b/w, as Windmills. (Baskett concordance).
Commentary

Mary Baskett associates this image with Twachtman's honeymoon in Dordrecht, but she notes that Dordrecht might not be its location, due to the absence of the signature port feature, the tower of the Groothoofdspoort, which can be seen in Holland Dykes (E.704). Baskett suggests that this could be Windmills, no. 160 in the 1883 exhibition of the New York Etching Club (1883 New York Etching Club). In the image, almost every line has an upward energy, especially those in the windmills, whose blades seem as if they might be activating the surging clouds that create a horizontal countermovement in the composition.  

Wickenden, who referred to this etching as Dordrecht, stated that in it "there is . . . an extraordinary sense of vitality and movement in every line; the sails of the mills are moving under the effects of the same breeze that agitates the rolling clouds beyond, and this is made more evident by a broad simplicity in the treatment of the marshy land and extent of lighter water nearer the foreground" (pp. 28–29).

The impression in the Hood Museum of Art, illustrated here, is a posthumous etching. It was among nineteen etchings reprinted for the 1921 exhibition at Frederick Keppel and Company, New York. According to Baskett, the printer was probably Peter Platt, a professional printer who produced etchings for Childe Hassam and John Sloan. 

Lifetime states (from Baskett 1999)

I. Most details of composition only partially indicated.

II. Grassy bank at left, trees, windmills, sailboat, clouds in sky, and poles in water completed.