Quick Reference

Time Period:
1941

Location:
Southwick Studio, south window

Medium:
Oil on Canvas

Type:
Landscape

Category:
Window Picture, Still Life

Size:
25 X 30

Exhibited:
Williston Academy, 1941
Northfield Seminary, 1941
Westfield Athenaeum, 1941
Vose Galleries (Boston), 1942,'43
Deefield Valley AA held at the
     Springfield MFA, 1942
Myles Standish Hotel, 1943
The Guild of Boston Artist, 1943

Purchased:
Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Hoyt

Provenance:
NA

Noteworthy:

"Among the highlights of the present exhibition are Robert Strong Woodward's clever oil Bottle Parade..." Boston Herald, Sunday, May 16, 1943

Related Links

Featured Artwork: Bottle Parade

RSW's Diary Comments

"1941. One of my window pictures, made from the south studio window in 1941. Sold November, 1943, from walls of Myles Standish Hotel, Boston (thru Mellsap) to Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Hoyt, #12 Crocker Circle, West Newton, Mass.""




Additional Notes

Springfield Daily News, April 02, 1942
Springfield Daily News, April 02, 1942

Springfield Union Mass.: Sept. 21, 1941

"Lovers of old glass will also appreciate Bottle Parade in which a cobalt blue bottle on a window sill throws its brilliant light against the equally brilliant snow. This happy habit of painting a scene through a window is one which Mr. Woodward seems to enjoy."



Boston Herald, Sunday, May 16, 1943

"Among the highlights of the present exhibition are Robert Strong Woodward's clever oil Bottle Parade which shows a row of old glass bottles in a window looking out over a snowy landscape, and is painted with clarity imagination and a good use of color........"


The following two quotes are excerpts from letters to F. Earl Williams regarding Bottle Parade:

"Last Friday I had a letter (check enclosed) saying that the window picture Bottle Parade had been sold from the walls of the Myles Standish Hotel---the 4th in 3 weeks."


"David Dickson (son of the Heath pastor and driver for me for a time) and I did not reach Boston until 10 minutes of 5--just in time to get my picture from the Guild, which I needed; then it was too late for any other activity--but going to the Myles Standish. I put a new picture in the dining room in place of Bottle Parade which was sold. We left Boston at 6. coming through Worcester, Ware, Amherst, Conway and Ashfield (having had to stop for supper on the way) reaching the garage at 10 o'clock."


Added Features

Woodward letter to Mr. Hoyt
Woodward letter to Mr. Hoyt

The following letter was written by RSW to C.W. Hoyt, purchaser of Bottle Parade. There is an option to see a larger version of the letter, as well as, a full transcript below.


Of course we will not make you try to read his handwritting. We transcribed the letter for you below:


Dec. 16th 1943

Dear Mr. & Mrs. Hoyt--ever since Mr. Mellsap, of the Myles Standish Galleries sent me the final information that you had bought and taken to your home my canvas, "Bottle Parade" which had hung in the dining room of the Hotel, it has been in my thoughts and wishes to write you a line, as the painting's creator, to tell you that I appreciate your so caring for the canvas. My paintings are all quite personal to me not just a bit of stock in trade, so that it seems to me always rather an intimate procedure when they pass into a private home. I hope my child will continue to behave well and will always give you pleasure and even inspiration. To my mind a painting is primarily pleasing decoration, but a truly lasting work of art should carry also its intimate and personal expression back to the owner. As Mr. Mellsap may have told you, this bottle parade is staged on one of the window sills of my large blacksmith shop studio here in Buckland (a small hill village a few miles from Shelburne Falls) at the far end of the state. My studio hangs high over a mountain valley with quite a dramatic outlook and I have painted from the various windows quite a number of canvases. One of my window pictures * was recently bought for the permanent collection of the Canajoharie Museum of Art in New York State. The very tipsy dark green bottle may puzzle you a bit, but there is no special story attached to it--it was a new acquisition at the time I painted this canvas two winters ago -- brought to me by my hired man who had gotten it out of an old country store in Charlemont, which had recently been sold at auction. It is evidently of very old workmanship and was made in such a crude handmade way it slanted even more acutely than I thought best to indicate -- so do not worry about its being out of drawing!


Should you ever be up in my end of the state I would be pleased to have you call at the studio to see your window itself. Being rather notorious in the neighborhood, my studio and home (which are together) can be found by any local inquiry!


I enclose a few clippings which may interest you; they need not be returned. Also, under separate cover, I am mailing you a photograph of "Bottle Parade" One very much misses the color, of course -- but thinking that possibly you might find slight pleasure in seeing the photograph -- and using it as you wish, I send it to you. Yes, may your new canvas always give you true pleasure.


Earnestly,


(signed) Robert Strong Woodward



Typed card from RSW to Mrs. Hoyt
Typed card from RSW to Mrs. Hoyt

The card to the left is a response to a letter from Mrs. Hoyt by Woodward. He mentions he has not responded sooner because of an illness and that got us thinking. Woodward preferred to handwrite his letters to customers. A typed card is too formal for him, that is unless, someone typed the letter for him to keep up his correspondence, like his nurse or cousin Florence or at this time it could have also been Dr. Mark.