RSW's Diary Comments

"Painted in 1934. Painted in the spring in Williamsburg of an old Mr. Loomer's house. Finished it just in time to show at Williston. Then was bought in November from my exhibition at Mt. Holyoke College for the permanent collection of the college. (Nov. 1934)"

Comments on the back of a sepia print:

"Oil painting by Robert Strong Woodward just purchased by Mt. Holyoke College for its permanent collection, from the one-man exhibition recently held by Mr. Woodward in the Dwight Memorial Art Gallery of Mt. Holyoke College."

"This I made just four days before I hung the Easthampton exhibition. This, too, like the May Pasture photograph, looks dark and heavy in relation to the painting, for it is very delicate and May-like---the lilacs quite astonishingly real and the sky, the purest one I ever painted with delicate blue gradations. The chimney is the largest one I ever saw among our old houses. I am sure you would care for this; it was painted in 2 1/2 days so is very fresh and direct in its impression of May atmosphere."

Greenfield Recorder Gazzette, January 1, 1935

Boston Post, Jan. 20, 1935

"At Lilac Time is one of this New England's characteristic and appreciative renderings of the rural New England scene. With sympathetic brush he creates on canvas this sunny glimpse of the rear of an old farm house, the front of the humble little dwelling lost in the riot of beautiful color of the flowing lilac bushes."

End of the Road, 1944

At Lilac Timehangs in the hallway of Mt. Holyoke College library building on the third floor by the elevator. The house in the painting was built in 1795 and still exists on Village Hill Road in Williamsburg, MA. It was a favorite subject of Woodward's appearently due to the size of its chimney. He painted, drew, and sketched the house numerous times. This same house appears in The End of the Road and The Big Chimney.( below)