Quick Reference

Time Period:
Prior to 1936

Location:
Unknown

Medium:
Oil on Canvas

Type:
Unknown

Gallery:
Unknown

Size:
25 X 30

Exhibited:
Berkshire Businessmen's AL, 1936

Purchased:
Unknown

Provenance:
NA

Noteworthy:

No photograph is known to exist.



Related Links

Featured Artwork: An Autumn Song

NO PHOTOGRAPH KNOWN TO EXIST


If you have any information regarding this artwork, please
contact us


RSW's Diary Comments

None



Additional Notes

North Adams Transcript, April 10, 1936
North Adams Transcript,
April 10, 1936: Headline

North Adams Transcript, April 10, 1936

"Mr. Woodward will also exhibit 'An Autumn Song,' a scene of late fall."


The above quote is everything we know about this painting which is not helpful in determining its actual subject. However, figuratively "late fall" tells us this is most likely a "November Painting." While it does not have its own gallery yet, one will becoming soon because we are just now beginning to understand that the month itself is one of the artist's favorites in a deeply symbolic and poetic way.

In poetry November represents "repose" like the musical term's meaning, ' the release of tension' or but also retirement. The moment between movements (to use musical terminology). What is unique about November more than any other month is that it is not only the transition before winter but also to the winter solstice when the waning daylight transitions and it is after the harvest and before the holidays. It is an "in between" state, a twilight if you will or early evening. So it represents the calm of completion, the reticence and satisfaction that results. ★ See more below


Another important note on this painting is its name. Woodward did not use it often, but when you find a painting with the word "Song" in its name. It is a tip-of-the-hat to artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler and 'how a painter [can] attempt to emulate the aesthetic qualities of music.' Particularly, getting the harmonious notes of a scene to evoke a feeling rather than telling a story. Whistler, would name some of his work like a composer would name a symphony. Woodward would also used the word "symphony" to convey a similar atmosphere. "Song", "Symphony", and "November" are all connected to the same rhythmic and harmonizing aesthetic.

Woodward would also use the word "parade" to infer marching or a march.


Woodward on November:

"From Engineer to Artist Perforce" | Boston Evening Transcript | December 8, 1920
by Margaret C. Getchell

"The hills are very lovely, even in November. Say 'even in November' to Mr. Woodward, and he will expostulate. He loves November as it touches his hills, and thinks it is a much-abused month, for it brings many a scene which invites the artist's eye as forcefully by its very wistfulness, as does the frisky joy of the springtime, or the quiet peace of winter's snow-bound fields, or the hilarity of the gay-colored autumn... "