{
 "schema": "nephos.method.v1",
 "slug": "homer-sparrow-hall-1881",
 "title": "Winslow Homer, Sparrow Hall, c. 1881–1882, NGA 2025.89.10",
 "urls": [
  "/studies/homer-sparrow-hall-1881"
 ],
 "written": {
  "summary": "Nephos’s reading of the picture, not a museum statement: a warm, sunny day in Cullercoats. Women have bare forearms and aprons; children sit on the steps beside open doorways; strong, warm light crosses the masonry wall and stair, with crisp shadows. The warmth is an interpretation of these cues, not a measured air temperature; work dress and a sheltered doorway can also suit cooler weather.",
  "items": [
   {
    "quote": "Favoured by exceptionally fine weather the crowds that visited the Moor were fully as large as could be anticipated",
    "source": "The Consett Guardian, 30 June 1882, printed p. 5, first full column, Town Moor paragraph",
    "url": "https://leadgatevillage.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/June-30th-1882.pdf#page=5"
   },
   {
    "quote": "studying, reworking and planning",
    "source": "Martha Tedeschi, quoted in Robert M. Poole, Smithsonian, May 2008; general watercolor practice",
    "url": "https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/hidden-depths-38616301/"
   }
  ]
 },
 "records": [
  {
   "name": "Durham Observatory: daily maximum temperature and bright sunshine",
   "detail": "Provider-adjusted Glaisher-stand maxima and Campbell–Stokes sunshine. 31.2 km inland from Cullercoats; source dates align but observing periods differ.",
   "url": "https://durhamweather.webspace.durham.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/03/Durham-Observatory-daily-climatological-dataset-updated-to-2024.xlsx"
  },
  {
   "name": "Shields: 1–7 July 1882 afternoon reports",
   "detail": "Six dry-bulb temperatures and weather codes, plus a blank Sunday return. Read under Yesterday’s 2 P.M.; not daily maxima or sunshine durations. January morning week also retained.",
   "url": "https://digital.nmla.metoffice.gov.uk/download/file/IO_8442608b-e92d-4866-b075-f9407ace5fd0"
  },
  {
   "name": "The Consett Guardian, 30 June 1882, p. 5",
   "detail": "Fine-weather witness at Newcastle Town Moor. A regional report, not weather at the cottage; publication date does not date each gala day.",
   "url": "https://leadgatevillage.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/June-30th-1882.pdf#page=5"
  },
  {
   "name": "NGA catalogue, Milwaukee–Worcester chronology and curatorial account of working practice",
   "detail": "Residence, catalogue date, possible completion abroad and studio reworking are distinguished from a documented sitting for this oil.",
   "url": "https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/american-masters-wilmerding-collection.pdf"
  }
 ],
 "gaps": [
  "1881 daily sunshine is missing; a whole-stay joint frequency cannot be calculated.",
  "One sunshine cell is a dot (5 May 1882). It stays null; its temperature is below all tested thresholds.",
  "No dated working session, local thermometer, or verified full Tynemouth/North Shields sunshine-duration series is established.",
  "No openly inspectable Shields Daily Gazette weather passage was recovered; this does not mean none survives.",
  "Completion in England and meteorological alteration remain unresolved."
 ],
 "tests": [
  {
   "claim": "Was warmth with sustained sunshine available during the stay?",
   "result": "At Durham, 38 of 303 paired days in January–October 1882 reached 18°C with at least six sunshine hours; 28 were in July and August. That combination occurred on 33 of 92 summer days: seasonal, but no rarity within summer."
  },
  {
   "claim": "Does the result depend on the threshold?",
   "result": "Yes in magnitude. At 20°C and six sunshine hours, 18 days qualify, all in July–August; the 16°C/six-hour and 18°C/four-hour alternatives are also published."
  },
  {
   "claim": "How does the same summer season compare with later records?",
   "result": "June–August 1882 has 33 qualifying days versus a 1961–1990 mean of 27.4. Its mean daily maximum is 18.2°C, versus 19.4°C across 28 complete summers within 1991–2020."
  },
  {
   "claim": "Does that identify the painted day or prove Homer changed the weather?",
   "result": "No. It tests the regional availability of an explicitly defined weather combination, not a working session or a before-and-after change."
  }
 ],
 "finding": "At Durham, 38 of 303 paired days in January–October 1882 reached 18°C with at least six sunshine hours; 28 were in July and August. That combination occurred on 33 of 92 summer days: seasonal, but no rarity within summer.",
 "verdicts": [
  {
   "claim": "Nephos’s warm-sun reading: regional availability",
   "verdict": "Partially agrees",
   "reason": "The explicit joint test finds 38 days, concentrated in the warm season. Durham is inland and is not the cottage."
  },
  {
   "claim": "Painted date, local temperature and altered weather",
   "verdict": "Unknown",
   "reason": "No dated working-session document or local observation connects the composition to a measured day."
  }
 ],
 "limits": [
  "Warmth is a visual interpretation, not a museum statement or a measured temperature. Thresholds are Nephos choices with sensitivity tests.",
  "The daily maximum and total sunshine are not proof of same-hour warmth and sun. Historical exposure corrections and changed observing periods limit precision.",
  "The 1991–2020 comparison is the mean of 28 complete summers, not an official 30-year normal. Summer 2005 and 2016 are excluded whole.",
  "Comparable daily sunshine ends in 1999. The joint reference uses 1961–1990, and the recent comparison uses temperature only.",
  "A newspaper passage and a station week are witnesses, not representative seasonal samples. Studio practice does not establish this oil’s execution sequence.",
  "The owner reread the sources and scans. No independent transcription check is claimed."
 ]
}