RSW's Diary Comments

"Painted in the fall of 1930, in my newly acquired Heath pasture at the juncture of the four stone walls, just back of where we built (that fall and winter) my Pasture House, from which I have painted so much. Sold, May 1943, to Grand Central Art Galleries, N.Y. City, to be hung in their Founder's Show (autumn of the same year) from whom knowledge of its permanent ownership can be learned."

Disclaimer:

We believe the year 1930 is incorrect. This painting first appears in the exhibition list in 1940 two years after RSW bought the Heath, MA, property. RSW's quote, "just back of where we built (that fall and winter) my Pasture House," just happens to fit that time line. We are also fairly certain that the completion of the Heath Pasture Studio was in 1940 supporting our belief that 1930 is wrong. the question that remains is - was there another painting of the same name in the early 1930s?

This is the location of the four stone walls in July 2006

Springfield Union, July 6, 1940

"Robert Strong Woodward's Abandoned Pastures, is admitted to be one of the most striking paintings that has ever been hung in Hall Tavern. Titles of paintings are often far removed from the significance of the subject but this picture depicts just what the name implies. The scene is a sweeping mountain pasture in early fall, and away off in the distance is range after range of distant mountains and hills."

A chalk drawing named Where Four Stone Walls Used to Meet was later made of this scene from a different vantage point and is privately owned. For more about the Heath, MA pasture and the studio Woodward built there, see our Scrapbook page devoted to the Heath Pasture Studio