Quick Reference

Time Period:
Unknown

Location:
Heath pasture house on Burnt Hill

Medium:
Oil on Canvas

Type:
Landscape

Category:
Beech Tree, Pastures

Size:
25 x 30

Exhibited:
Unknown

Purchased:
Unknown

Provenance:
NA

Noteworthy:

This artwork was originally unnamed and unsigned.

Related Links

Featured Artwork: The Beech Tree

RSW's Diary Comments

None.



Additional Notes

Mark and Barbara under Beech painting
Mark and Barbara under Beech painting

This painting of the Heath Pasture Beech Tree for a number of years was stored in the Southwick Studio frame room and labeled as "unfinished" and it was not named.

When Mark Purinton married his wife Barbara and the two moved to Boston for Mark to begin medical school in August of 1950, RSW brought this painting with him on a visit to Boston as a house-warming gift for their Newbury Street apartment. Mark had to carry RSW up four flights of stairs to the apartment to oversee that it was hung properly.

It was at the time it was given, unsigned. Mark did not understand at the time that Woodward did not sign artwork he gave as gifts. Woodward did finish the painting before giving it and it is a beautiful painting. Mark, not understanding RSW's policy of not signing gifts asked his mentor to sign the painting and Woodward obliged only to go so far as to sign the painting, "Robert S. Woodward."


Woodward's abbreviated signature
Woodward's abbreviated signature

The painting stayed with the newlyweds throughout Mark's medical school days, traveling with the couple to Connecticut where Mark had his residency, ultimately returning to the Souhtwick Place after Woodward left the property to the man he considered a son. It remains in the family as a treasured gift and memory of Woodward's love for Mark and Barbara.

This gift is quite a sentimental gift by Woodward. His beloved Beech Tree that sat in an open pasture, high in Heath, MA, was his retreat. Over the years, it became special for another reason and that was the time Mark would drive Woodward up to the Heath Pasture Studio and the two would spend their time camping under the stars. One of Woodward's favorite pastimes...