RSW's Diary Comments

"Painted summer 1944. A picture of the rear of the Halifax house with sunlit gray gable of little ell the center of focus, with giant elm arching over it. One of my finest composed and freshest painted pictures of the loved Halifax house. Worked on it the last Sunday I was out with Mark (August 1944) before he went into service, the Sunday I introduced 'David Grayson' to him and talked of the fuller appreciation of daily living and daily romance, a Sunday he and I, as Sorrel and Kit, both cherish. Bought August, 1947, by Dr. and Mrs. J. C. Hales of 183 Lawrence St., Gardner, Mass."

Woodward in his Packard
painting what we believe is THIS painting

The Art Digest, May 1, 1945
by Margaret Breuning

Peace of Years depicts a little, white house leaning against a sagging barn of weathered textures. The trees spreading over them, shrubs and rank grasses growing insolently up to their doorways, seem to have taken root deeply in the earth and become part of the scene around them, all pretence of struggle against the forces of nature abandoned."

To our delight we found this photograph (to the right) of Woodward in his Packard painting what we believe is THIS painting, given his location and perspective of the Halifax house That would mean that in all likelihood, Dr. Mark took the picture the day before he would leave for the Air Force!

Below: A scanned excerpt from a letter where RSW made mention of this piece and saying, "I consider it one of the finest canvases I ever made, technically, in composition and in color."

Handwritten comment by RSW in a letter.