Featured Artwork: Unnamed: From My Winter Shelf

No comments, this piece is unsigned and unnamed. However, due to the unique situation the editor has chosen to use this space to provide background:

My Winter Shelf,

This painting is unnamed and unsigned, some even questioned whether this is a Woodward. The website believes there is no question. For all intent and purposes, it appears to be a different version of My Winter Shelf, with two differences:

❶ The handle of the red lantern is facing the opposite direction and...
❷ A geranium flower has been placed in a different position.

Otherwise, all else appears identical. The question is... was this RSW's first attempt at the subject but didn't like the composition? It is worth noting that My Winter Shelf was purchased by renown art collector, Mrs. Henry Everett. Upon her death she donated the painting to the Pasadena (CA) Museum of Fine Arts, as well as, My Winter Shelf, often being confused with or mistaken for The Window: A Still Life and Winter Scene. This was another museum piece purchased by famous Boston collector John Spaulding, and is currently held in the Spaulding Collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

McCall's Magazine December 1927

In 1927, Woodward's work appeared twice in McCall's Magazine. The first was in October when the drawing High in Plainfield accompanied an essay written by Corrine Roosevelt Aslop (a Connecticut politician and niece of Therodore Roosevelt) and once again in December where this painting was featured in an essay on Christmas by Isabel Mosher. The illustration was incorrectly attributed to Majorie Lunt, wife of close personal friend and confidant Dr. Lawrence Lunt. It may be that Mrs. Lunt had something to do with it being published, possibly it was a painting they owned or at the very least had it in their possession, perhaps "on loan" or given as a gift by RSW which he was known to do for friends and family.

In any event, it was always presumed that this was the painting My Winter Shelf because at first glance it appears to be exact. However, in 2017 we learned of another painting, unnamed and unsigned, which greatly resembled My Winter Shelf but had slight alterations in the composition, such as the handle of the red lantern facing in the opposite direction. This painting is, in fact, the painting illustrated in the December, 1927 issue of McCall's. The fact that it is unnamed and unsigned further supports the Lunt connection. Many of the "Unnamed and Unsigned" paintings known today have links to a number of close RSW family and friends from the past.

Below: 9 close-up images of the painting. You can clearly see the heavy & aggressive impasti brush technique used by RSW early in his career.

Pot & Curtain

Window Ledge

Window Frame & Snow

Red Lantern

Candlestick & Holder

Beech Leaf Arrangement

Beech Leaves & Curtains

Duck Statue & Books

Apple & Grapes