RSW's Diary Comments

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Snow from the North Sepia

"Painted Feb. 1940. Painted from my studio north window. Snowstorm outside, white glass banjo bottle and silhouetted china colt on windowsill. One of the finest things I ever painted. Not exhibited much because kept a 'trump card' for N. Y. or Boston exhibitions. Bought from my Grand Central Art Galleries Exhibition at Hotel Gotham Branch, March, 1942, by Mrs. William H. Moore and given to Miss Eleanor Spencer, noted pianist (deaf) of Hotel San Jacinto, 18 East 60th St., New York City."

The nameplate from the frame

RSW's signature from the lower left of painting

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❤ The staff of this website wishes to extend our heartfelt appreciation to the Duquesne Club and its art director Heather Semple for providing us the images of the painting use on this page.

The "china colt" figurine
from the painting

Editor's Note:

The nameplate on the frame is titled "The Window." This is not all that uncommon for something that has passed hands at least three times that we know. However, the website not only had RSW's dairy comments in which he describes the piece but also the original sepia print which matches the artwork. We are confident this piece's true name to be Snow From the North.

We owe our thanks to the article on Woodward published by Fine Art Connoisseur magazine's February 2013 issue for its discovery in the collection of the Duquesne Club of Pittsburgh, PA. The club's art curator at the time, Heather Semple (mentioned above) was a subscriber to the periodical. A book published by the club on its collection, reports this painting was listed as being presented by Logan T. Johnston in memory of Arthur W. McKinney. How Mr. Johnston came in possession of the painting is unknown to us at this time. MORE BELOW ⮟

Ada Small Moore portrait
Woodward's sponsor / patron-saint

Here we have another example of Woodward's patron-saint, Mrs. Ada Small Moore propagating Woodward's work among her friends. Like Woodward's best customer, Adaline Havemeyer Frelinghuysen, Mrs. Moore bought numerous paintings to gift to friends and relatives. We wonder if maybe, Miss Spenser was visiting Mrs. Moore and saw Woodward's work, like it, giving Mrs. Moore the idea.

⮝ We also want to point out that while Woodward notes the pianist as "deaf" we have learned she was not born deaf, she went deaf as she aged.

The next question is how in the world did the canvas end up in the hands of Logan T. Johnston (1900 - 1977)? We have no idea... but we do know a lot more about Mr. Johnston today (2026) than we did in 2013. He is a Carnegie Mellon (Pittsburgh, PA) graduate and climbed up the steel industry to become President and Chairman of the Armco Steel Corporation, Middletown, OH.

Pianist, Eleanor Spencer, 1914
photo credit: Wikipedia

⮝ We also found some information on the honored man being memorialized, Arthur W. McKinney. There is a page dedicated to him on CarnegieHero.org. The Carnegie Medal was given to Mr. McKinney in 1920 for reportedly saving the life of man in danger of being electrocuted on a job where McKinney was the electrical engineer. It is unclear if Johnston was friends with McKinney or if he did this in some official capacity fro the club.

★ For more reading about pianist Miss Eleanor Spencer visit this website from the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team authored by, Harriette Brower, and prepared by Chuck Greif please Click Here (the page will open in a new tab and will take you right to the section dedicated to Spencer).

We also added a link to Eleanor Spenser's Wikipedia page for more personal information about the artist to the right ⮞