RSW's Diary Comments

"Painted prior to 1930. Inside of Keach's living room, same room as Keach's stove. Exhibited but a few times out of studio.

A review of the 1928 J.H. Miller Exhibition

Right: Springfield Union, by Jeanette Matthews

"Of warmer things there are some interiors that are heartening. A Country Interior and A Country Sitting Room... I like either of these rooms quite as much as anything Henry Ford could recreate of the period of my great-great.'

Springfield Daily Republican, Sat. April 28, 1928

".....a sunny country sitting room well kept by a lover of books and bric-a-brac...."

A Red Cross in the window indicates that this family has already made a donation to the red cross organization.

This painting was painted during a period when Woodward was making a study of interiors. He painted as many as 3 interiors of the Keach residence, as well as his own studio interior and many sugarhouse interiors. It is believed he was seeking a replacement for the loss of his Redgate Studio from which he frequently painted the interior woods just behind the studio lost to fire in December 1922.

Another important note to make about this painting is that while it exhibited numerous times during Woodward's career all of the exhibits but the J.H. Miller and Macbeth show were local and held a personal connection. In fact, the '38 Umass show and the '44 Myles Standish feature were showcases where none of the paintings were for sale. This would make this painting a personal favorite of his. It remained in his personal collection and hung in his home until his death along with a number of other paintings he could not let go unless a museum or collection made an offer on it.

A Country Interior
To be clear, this is the Keach's living/dining room. The
stove is a heat stove, not a kitchen stove. RSW sup-
posedly painted the kitchen and decribed by Helen Patch.

Another vantage point of the room is found in it's sister A Country Interior. On the lower left portion of the painting you can see the plants and table of A Country Sitting Room.

There is at least one more, possibly two Keach homes interiors besides this painting and A Country Sitting Room, and Keach's Stove. Woodward friend, Mrs. Helen Patch describes a painting of the Keach kitchen as follows, "I think; Rob painted their kitchen-stoop:- an incredible mess of mops, pails, broken steps-- weathered and unpainted," which is neither of the two know paintings. We do not know its name or what became of it.