This website is a tribute to the life and artwork of Western Massachusetts artist Robert Strong Woodward (1885 -1957).
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Current Announcements

  "A Summer Day on the           Buckland Common"

 SAVE THE DATE: Sat. July 15, 2023

★ A DATE HAS BEEN SET for this year's annual Summer Day on the Buckland Common event!

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Thank you all for your ❤
    SUPPORT OF WOODWARD
            and the Buckland HS


AS PROMISED...

We have resumed updating the update table! We truly are sorry. We are in the process of up-dating every artwork page from A-to-Y (there are no Zs).

It has been 15 years since the launch of the new design which appears to be the design for the indefinite future and so much new information has been gathered in that time, giving us new perspectives and under-standing into Woodward's career, that we need to incorp-orate it into the entire site. An arduous task of 2,400 pages and really just two guys doing the work.

Thus far we have completed the AB, CDE, F Galleries and we are half way through the G Gallery. When we complete the G Gallery, we will be a quarter of the way through what we are calling "the audit."

The biggest change you will see is full information on a painting's exhibition history. The exhibition list tells wonderful and inform-ative stories about a number of long overlooked paintings. What's more is that we are now adding images to artwork pages we do not have pics of the artwork. In many cases, from either the name, a description from a newspaper clipping, or a diary comment tells us enough about the painting to offer you a look at similar or related pieces. So now, even if the gallery says "No Photograph Available" check it out anyway. It may surprise you.

Another change we are making is to add what is called "meta data" to each and every article clipping that appears on the website. What this mean is that every article we post on the pages of the website will now be seachable. A huge advant-age for compiling all related paintings on a single page through a simple search.

  Read more directly below...


Monthly Featured Artwork from our 2023 Calendar:  Down the Hill Road

Spring Comes to New England
This painting by Robert Strong Woodward, Down the Hill Road is the May view in the 2023 Buckland Historical Society Woodward Calendar.


Website's Key Features


Welcome to RobertStrongWoodward.com! The website is divided into two main features. First is the Gallery of Woodward's artwork sorted in themes and then alphabetically. There is also the Scrapbook which contains collections of stories, memorabilia and specific citations related to Woodward, his life and achievements. It is at once a tribute and historical record of Woodward and the life and times from which he drew his inspiration.


❤❤   THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 21,500+ VISITS   ❤❤

   From April of 2022 to April of 2023, the website received more than 21,500 unique visits. The most meaningful of these numbers are the eighty-seven percent ( or 18,800+ ), of those visitors who opened us directly from their browser and not through a search engine.
   We do not look at our numbers often because we would be doing this whether we had one visit a year or a million. This pleased us so very much and we are beyond grateful. It is an increase of 89% since the last time we looked - 2017. That is a growth rate of nearly 15% a year and we couldn't be more appreciative to have your attention. No pressure though, we're cool...

Woodward's Second Love...

Not only known for his landscape paintings, Woodward had a pas-sion for the restoration and preservation of aging buildings. In his life as a professional artist, he took an unused old diary shed and converted it to his first studio, Redgate. He then purchased an abandoned farm, the old Hiram Woodward Place, and restored it to a show piece of old New England. He then purchased an old mill (Boehmer's Mill) nearby and returned it to its former glory. After a tragic fire burned Hiram in 1934, he purchased another abandon farm, the Southick Place featuring its early 19th century blacksmith shop into a model of New England tradition that appears today as it did when he lived there... His studios are a reflection of his values.


The Artwork Galleries

The galleries consist of nearly 800 known works of art created by Woodward. We have some form of an image for approximately 75% of them! The galleries are organized in two ways. The first is the Theme Gallery, sorted into 25 categories. The second is alphabetical, making up 8 separate galleries plus a gallery of artwork RSW didn't name or we do not have a name for at this time. Plus, visit our Complete Works List and surf the website from there!

In addition to the artwork, when available, we provide additional notes and background related to the artwork, as well as, links to related paintings or locations for a richer experience and connection to the area.



Our Recollections Scrapbook

The Recollections Scrapbook is a collect-ion of personal ac-counts from people who either knew Wood-ward personally or related to us an experi-ence they have had related to Woodward. A number of the stories told come from this website's originator, Mark Purinton (seen in picture to the left with Woodward), who started working for Woodward as a boy.



Painting Stories Scrapbook

This is our "story behind the paintings" collection. It includes some of Wood-ward's favorite subjects, such as, his neighbor Harrison Keach's Farm, the Halifax (VT) House and the North Window of his Southwick studio. There is also Charlemont Bridge artwork before the bridge was destroyed in the hurriciance of 1938 and Marlboro Church, part of a "church series" Woodward was commissioned for by industrialist Francis P. Garvin before his death.


Recent Website Updates

We are looking to add greater depth of insight that fleshes out more context than we have ever had about Woodward's career as well as his personal values and principles. The stories just begin to tell themselves. And something like that results from processing the information one has available, turning it into empirical (measurable) data. Once it has been compiled, it then needs to be interpreted and analyzed and you start to see patterns and connections that are not always obvious despite being right under your nose for years.

More daunting will be the Scrapbook portion of the website. As of right now, the information under the Redgate Studio, the Hiram Woodward Place, and the Heath Pasture House are all woefully out-of-date. It is a top priority for us to update these pages, especially the Hiram Place, for which there is so much never-before-known information to add.

In addition to the studio pages, we have been assembling as many as 15 new Scrapbook pages and just as many in the cue for a much needed update. We suggest you go to our new Miss Mabel page to see what we mean. There are also important people in Woodward's life we have neglected to give their due. We are now distinguishing some of these individuals as "patrons", "benefactors", and sponsors. One page in particular will reveal just how critical one women was to Woodward having any career at all.

We ask you bear with us. There will be plenty of new material for you to see. For now we start you off with the 11 new updates. We suggest you start with When Drifts Melt Fast to the right... and check back in a couple more weeks when we expect to add at least 10 more new updates!

BCM

04-14-2023 A NEW STORY

When Drifts Melt Fast

In this story, we call Woodward out on being misleading. He claims "it never sold" but the truth is that he never found the right home for what maybe one of the most celebrated and beloved paintings in his entire oeuvre. Read the story of this award-winning painting and see if you agree...


03-12-2022 NEW DISCOVERY

From My Studio Window

Woodward made a num-ber of small errors in his Painting Diary. He didn't start the diary until the early 1940s and so a lot of it was from memory. In regard to this painting, however, he may have made his most egregious mistake. It was the wrong painting entirely! More surprising is who OWNS this painting.


03-15-2023 CORRECTION

The South Window, 1928

It all adds up... the size matches, where it exhibited matches, and the good fortune of discovering a photograph from the 1928 exhibit where this painting is hung next to a known 40" x 50" painting is all we needed to prove this painting is the one on the cover of Country Life Magazine.


09-17-2022 NEW PAINTING

Unnamed: Haying Time in New England

We have received a few newly discovered paint-ings through their owners who graciously send us their pictures. This signed but unnamed painting is an early 1920s oil on canvas. It is very unique in that it shows a slop-ing field being hayed and you can just make out the work horses and cart use to do it.


08-03-2022 EXPERIMENTAL

The Chambered Nautilus

In our greatest indulg-ence yet, we explore what this painting could possibly be since we have no image of it. Furthermore, we also speculate on the sym-bolism that may be ap-pealing to Woodward that holds great meaning to the artist. It is part of our effort to explore a more intimate look inside his interest.


07-06-2022 A NEW STORY

An Autumn Song

Our work in processing all of the news clippings and articles in Woodward's scrapbook is producing opportunities to reveal some things about paintings for which we have no images. This is a great example, and we offer two insights of import to its name and month.


04-19-2023 NEW CONTEXT

God's Quiet Acre

More on our effort to get all the article in RSW's scrapbooks to the web-site, here we paid special attention to this chalk drawing. Jeanette Matt-hews of the Springfield Republican is a great art reviewer and one of our favorites. Note what she says about this painting...


01-23-2022 IN TRIBUTE

Miss Mabel Raguse

We are making every effort to update many of the Scrapbook pages originated by Dr. Purinton. Here we add some new perspectives on Miss Mabel touting her as one of Woodward's best customers despite her limited resources. Something RSW's greatly appreciated.


12-22-2022 NEW PICS

Unnamed: Guilford Farm; Conway

We had the great plea-sure to be invited to take new pictures of this un-named and unsigned painting. There is a ques-tion as to if it is a finished piece. There are missing details RSW would have normally filled in. It was sold after his death by his family.


07-01-2022 NEW PAINTING

Unnamed: Barnyard Blanket

You may have already seen this painting of Woodward's Hiram Woodward Place barn and yard just after a snow storm because it appear-ed as the featured art-work for the month of February in this year's Buckland Historical Society's calendar.


04-04-2023 ADDED INFO

Full Bloom

If you want to know how special a painting was to Woodward- look at where he exhibited it. In one of the best examples of a painting being over-looked, this is it. This page best illustrates how important our work to fully vet and add all the in-formation we have on where a painting hung.


FOLLOW THIS LINK TO ALL the previous updates from 2021 to 2014...