Comments about researching these two similar paintings.

In April of 2006 a painting came up for sale on E-Bay. It was a very early painting by Robert Strong Woodward entitled My Winter Desk. It was easily recognized as a "Woodward" and the signature appeared to be perfectly authentic. The size was listed as 30 x 36 inches. There was no diary listing for a painting with that title.

Cross checking with the RSW diary, we found he had created an almost identical painting of the same subject which was named My Winter Shelf and was listed as being 30 x 36 inches in size. The following is quoted directly from his diary.

          
In the beginning of my research for publishing a listing of all of the RSW paintings, I came across 6 identical photographs of a window painting which had no identification on them. I learned later that there was a window painting in the famous Spaulding Collection owned by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. On January 4, 2005, I requested a photograph from the Museum of the painting donated by John Spaulding. I hoped that I could identify the prints left in the RSW estate, and perhaps connect that painting to the above diary comments. The picture which they sent turned out to be identical to the six left in the estate collection. The Museum stated that the painting was named The Window: Still Life and a Winter Scene. Therefore, I concluded that this painting must be one of two nearly identical paintings. The 30 x 36 painting, My Winter Shelf, described in the diary must not be the one in the Spaulding Collection and must have been sold to a private collector. On the back of the photograph received from the Museum was a sticker that stated:
          
The final piece of the puzzle was received in June 2006. A photograph of a painting was sent to us by a viewer of this website and included the following information:
          
Careful reading of the text boxes above will show a discrepancy. Woodward's diary shows that the painting, My Winter Shelf as being owned by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Yet the Museum's own records indicate it owns the painting, The Window: Still Life and a Winter Scene. There are no diary listings for either The Window: Still Life and a Winter Scene or The Winter Desk (the one listed in E-bay).

          

Now comes a nearly identical 30 x 36 painting for sale on E-Bay mislabeled My Winter Desk. Close comparisons of the two images reveal that the E-Bay painting has a man outside the window shoveling snow, has no glass medallion hanging over one of the window panes, has no candlestick, and the geranium plant on the right side of the shelf does not entirely obscure the barn. Otherwise, the paintings are essentially identical except for size.

Robert Strong Woodward seldom made two paintings of the same subject, but I have discovered he did do so on several occasions. Although rare, I can identify three times that this was done. This seemed to occur if he made a painting which sold in the far west of the country. He then immediately made another, with the intention of offering it for sale to a local patron.

It is therefore my opinion that there are two paintings of the window corner in the old Hiram Woodward studio (which was destroyed by fire in 1934.) The first being the 30 x 36 offered on E-Bay and titled My Winter Shelf (mistakenly labeled My Winter Desk). The second being a 25 x 30 entitled The Window: Still Life and a Winter Scene, and owned by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

This I now conclude to be a mistake in the Woodward diary. The diary comments are even admitted by RSW as being uncertain. Robert Strong Woodward probably started writing the diary in about 1940. It is accurate about paintings made after that date. However, he attempted to document earlier paintings using his memory, perhaps supplemented by exhibition listings, receipts, and letters.


MLP
2010