"Painted around 1930. Painting of a barn in Cummington-Chesterfield district on steep old road that goes out of Swift
River up by the Howes' farm (where Contentment was painted). This is the same subject as the 40 x 50 New England Origins.
Sold from the studio in April, 1950 and is currently in a private collection in Massachusetts."
"Sent to Salons of America, American Anderson Galleries, By Fabian April 11th, 1932. "New England Heights" (a small Cummington barn). In Bradmorth's hands May 16th."
"Other fine canvases are New England Heights, showing a lonely barn on a windswept hillside,......"
To the Left: An article clipping from the New Hamphire Transcript regarding RSW's exhibition at the Deerfield Academy (1932). It is one of 12 oil paintings mentioned in the article and one of 20 oil paintings and 10 chalk drawings exhibited.
A photograph of this painting was sent to this site in 2007 with the following quote:
The painting is currently in a private collection in Massachusetts.
"In about 1931, according to the Robert Strong Woodward diary, he made a large 40 x 50 oil painting of a small farm on a hill in the Swift River district of
western Massachusetts. He named it New England Origins. The painting was widely exhibited about the country
and won much praise by viewers and critics.
At about the same time, Mr. Woodward made a smaller 25 x 30 oil of the same subject which he titled New
England Heights, essentially an exact copy of New England Origins. It was recorded in the RSW diary and it was photographed by Mr. Ashworth. The next year
after that Woodward made a third painting of the same scene and named it High on the Hill.
The
only remaining negative, in Mr. Ashworth's handwriting, had the title High On The Hill written on it in pencil. But this was boldly crossed out by Woodward and was filed
as New England Heights. The negative is still stored in the RSW studio.
The scene of all three paintings, a single, weathered barn (or shed) high on
a hill, was so popular that all three were widely exhibited concurrently over the same years of 1933 and '34. Perhaps the reason Woodward felt it necessary to have three paintings
of the same scene was the result of its high demand.
MLP