RSW's Diary Comments

August Shade, image of sepia print

"Painted 1938. Painted on side street (near gymnasium) of Old Deerfield when in great pain. House, George Fuller's old studio. Sent to Harold Grieve in Hollywood but on return not satisfied with it so repainted it during the winter of 39-40. Invited to Corcoran Biennial Washington, D.C, 1941, from Macbeth Gallery and winning 3rd place in popular vote among all pictures in the exhibition. Bought in June 1941 by Mr. Jacob Merteus, Jr. of #1 Wall Street, N.Y. City or 13 Campden Road, Scarsdale, NY."

Editor's Note:

In his heart Woodward is a romantic. Yet reviewers and critics often note how he rarely crosses that line in his work. This is the rare example. This painting, and its siblings cited below are an homage to 19th Century portrait artist George Fuller. The little brown house was once his studio. Also note the wardrobe of the young couple walking arm in arm up to the house. Although we cannot say what time period it is exactly, that is not the fashion of the late 1930s or 20th century for that matter.

The House today. It was once the Deerfield Aca-
demy's bookstore and as of 2023, we hear, it is slated
to be torn down to make room for future development.

Purchased at auction in Old Lyme, Conn. Privately owned.

Painted on Old Albany Road in the south end of Old Deerfield just off the Deerfield Academy campus. This is the road going west along the south side of the Administration Building down toward the old cemetery. The tree is gone, but the building is still there (for now).

Please see also Hitchcock Elm and Out of the Past for similar paintings.

Young couple walking arm in arm.
Note the wardrobe of the young couple

To the left: is a close up of the young couple walking arm and arm which gets overlooked because the none of the images we have are ideal.

Below left: is a newspaper clipping of unknown origin reporting Woodward's 3rd place prize for most popular painting at the 17th (1941) Biennial Exhibition of the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington D.C., voted on by the visitors of the exhibit. He lost out on second by what looks to be 4 votes. However, please note that 1st and 2nd place prizes went to portraits, popular in its day. This painting is a landscape! In today's spin, we could say he won top prize for landscape. We won't because that would be misleading. Still, it is an important distinction to make.

Below right: is a clipping from Worcester Sunday Telegram, June 15, 1941, reporting on Woodward's "One-Man Show" exhibition held at the Northfield Seminary, May 29 through June 9, 1941. Also mentioned is some of the artwork shown appearing at the Golden Gate Exhibition in San Francisco, CA, the purchase by Bartlett Arkell of New England Impressions (not specifically mentioned) and Corcoran.

Clipping regarding 1941 Corcoran Biennial Ex-
hibition. RSW placed 3rd in the gallery's popular
vote garnering 4.5% of the 1231 attendees. Both
first and second prizes went to portraits.

Uncited clipping. We are unaware of what
painting exhibited at both the New York World's Fair
and Golden Gate Exposition ('39). Both expos ran
simutaniously. Winter Song went to San Francisco
and New England Impression went to New York and
was bought by Arkell for the Canajoharie. As far as we
know, when a painting hung at an expo it stayed
for the duration. The Golden Gate was shuttered
early over growing tensions in the Pacific with Japan.

A close up of the signature

A close up of the back of the stretcher