RSW's Diary Comments

December Window Sepia Print

"Painted 1948. My winter window shelf of the little South East window back of the easel painted so many times. Outside the apple orchard under rather heavy snow (gray day) and a few icicles; inside to the left of the shelf blossoming red geranium in brown pot, tin candlestick and candle, and book, and to the right a little horn of plenty dish, glass bird in front of apple-green and dark blue small bottles, an open old book, and, very prominently, my red and orange Sandwich glass lamp, with an old-fashioned, unfluted chimney. Distinctive among the several canvases I"ve made of this window because of the red lamp. Sold at the So. Vt. Artists Exhibition, Manchester, Vt. to Mrs. P.H.B. Frelinghuysen."

Adaline Havemeyer Frelinghuysen
from her 1905 Bryn Mawr College year-
book. Her sister, Electra, is known for
founding the Shelburne Museum, VT.

Adaline Havemeyer Frelinghuysen is far and away Woodward's best customer. A resident of Morristown, NJ, she and her husband Peter Hood Ballentine Frelinghuysen Sr. (a former law school classmate of not-yet-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and served as an usher at his wedding to Eleanor) summered in Manchester, VT. The earliest records we have of their relationship began with the start of the Southern Vermont Artist Association in 1927.

Over the years, we have learned that she and her husband bought as many as 26 paintings (including chalks) and we continue to discover more each year. Primarily because there were a number of private sales that were not recorded in Woodward's records, as well as, Adaline's appreciation for pastels and chalks which Woodward did not keep records. We believe her love of pastels comes from her mother (Louisine W. E. Havemeyer) and her close friendship with an artist famous for her pastels, Mary Cassatt. Cassatt was also friends with Edgar Degas one of the most famous pastel artists of all time whom we believe had a significant influence on Woodward.

If you are wondering, Adaline is the daughter of controversial sugar magnate and renowned art collector, Henry Osborne Havemeyer of the famed Havemeyer Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Her mother, a leader of the sufferage movement.

The Manchester (VT) Journal. August 31, 1950

To the left, is a clipping from The Manchester (VT) Journal featuring December Window. Though Woodward painted this painting in 1948, he did not exhibit it until 1950. It is possible that he liked it so much, he kept it around for a while. We are finding that he did this from time to time for paintings that really meant something to him. But 1950 is the winding down of his career. He is not nearly as productive as he once was and his window paintings were so popular they often sold quickly just as this one did at its first exhibition.

He would only paint for about 3 more years. He is suffering from brachial neuritis greatly affecting his command and control over his hands. Besides that, his lifelong ailments of phantom pain and intermittent twitching attributed to his paralysis are now worsening...