RSW's Diary Comments

Unnamed: Venerable Halifax, Year Unknown.
This is another version of the same scene. Note the
difference in shadowing on the roof and clouds in sky.

"Painted 1935. Rear of Halifax house from top of mowing in back. Exhibited quite generally about the country. Acquired in the summer of 1945 by my dear friends, Mr. and Mrs. F. Earl Williams of Gardner, Mass."

Comments on the back of a sepia print:

"Late summer in New England. Foreground of uncut old grass, pale yellow and ochre. $450."

Editor's Note:

Years ago the sepia print to the left got mislabeled as Aged Roofs. In our recent audit of images, fresh review and, update of the artwork pages exposed the error. The difference in the skies alone are enough to see they are not the same. What usually happened was that Dr. Mark would come across an unlabeled sepia and compare it with what he had available to him. Then later we would get new images and confirmation of the painting and not double check that the other documents match. What else does not match is the season, the apple trees in bloom above and not in the sepia. So the information on the sepia supplied by Woodward is correct. It is a late summer painting.

F. Earl Williams

The image (above) of this painting was discovered in a collection of KodaChome slides taken by Mr. F. Earl Williams himself and given to the Smithsonian Institute under his name as part of RSW's collection. There two other paintings found in the collection, Portrait of a Shadow. and the unnamed and unsigned Unnamed: The Awaiting Maple.

Williams was an amateur photographer, high school principal and very close RSW friend. Williams had taken a great number of pictures during their years as friends and Williams could possibly be the only one who could get away with taking pictures of RSW. We invite you to read more about Williams and visit the gallery page devoted to his photographs.