Featured Artwork: Dusty Rafters

RSW's Diary Comments

"Prior to 1925. The inside of Herbert Keach's barn (now burnt). A 27 x 30 of the same subject was made before my Redgate fire"1922--- in which it was burnt. After the fire I went to the barn and made this 36 x 42. Exhibited it largely, till finally it was bought from my exhibition at Mrs. Lyman's house, Beacon St., Boston, by Mrs. W. Scott Fitz (daughter-in-law of Oliver Wendell Holmes). Upon her death it went to relatives, a Mr. and Mrs. James C. Hopkins of Dover, Mass. who now own it. I later made a 27 x 30 of this same subject titled New Hay."

Editor's Note:

The Little Red Barn, 1939, is the exterior
of the barn used for this interior painting.

The diary comment for Dusty Rafters is struck out in the diary comments above because Woodward was mistaken. The diary comments above are actually meant for the 1924 painting Old Rafters. This painting did not appear in the exhibit records until 1929, when it was hung at the 1929 Myles Standish show. As we always do when this happens, we remind you that Woodward did not begin to compile a diary of his paintings until the early 1940s at the suggestion of Dr. Mark and encouraged by close friend F. Earl Williams. It appears that, like many of us, he did it mostly by memory believing he was recalling the painting correctly.

We also want to note that because Woodward painted seven versions of this interior over a 20-year span, it is essential to his brand, making it what we call an "editorial" painting; that is to say, it makes a statement critical to his message. The exterior of this barn appears in fifteen individual paintings (only once as the main subject and fourteen times as the backdrop) and is exhibited a total of forty-three times in all. That is exceeded only by the Halifax house, which has 15 paintings exhibited fifty-four times. Furthermore, while the Heath Pasture exceeds the Little Red Barn in paintings (60 vs. 15), it does not surpass the subject of the Beech Tree (48 paintings) in exhibitions (43 vs. 40) and trails the Heath Pasture in its entirety of 62 paintings, exhibiting in a total of fifty-five exhibitions.

High Pastures, 1942: Typical of a Heath Pasture
painting with its austere scenery and solo standing trees.

Now add the thirteen times the interior scene hangs at an event and the total falls just one short of the Heath Pasture (62 vs. 61) with just a third of the number of paintings!

The fact that the artist made seven versions of this painting also makes a big statement, but it is this painting, Dusty Rafters, that is the most exhibited of any of the others during his ascension to the top of the landscape painting art world (1930 - 1937, portraits still reigned supreme in popularity at the time). Look at the exhibits it appears, and it tells you that Woodward himself saw to it that is appeared in those shows. So while Halifax's, New England Heritage, may be considered his masterpiece grounded in social commentary and the Heath Pasture/Beech Tree his reflective self-portrait, The Little Red Barn is his commentary on what is quintessentially and aesthetically New England beauty.

Uncited clipping for the Littlecote Exhibit
March 14, 1929

Utica (NY) Dispatch Mar. 10, 1929 Littlecote (NY) Exhibit:

"An outstanding canvas of exhibition is Dusty Rafters... The Friendly Doorway and Dusty Rafters are examples wherein he paints these subjects with such insight and feeling that one can feel the very texture of the weatherbeaten boards and curled hand-wrought shingles of a former generation. Mr. Woodward has made these subjects nationally known and it is needless to say that after time has destroyed his models, they will live in canvas where those who can appreciate will be able to enjoy them."

Exhibited at the Littlecote Gallery, Utica, New York, March 14, 1929 and mentioned specifically in the articles to the right. In a very small way this is a BIG event for Woodward. It is his first known show in eastern New York as he continues to rebuild his reputation after his disastrous Redgate Studio fire in 1922. It was reported in the newspapers that this exhibit when later travel to Troy, New York, close to Schenectady, NY, where the artist lived for nearly four years as a teenager. It is possible this these shows will get the attention of Anna Olmstead, Director of the Syracuse Museum of Fine Art, later to be named the Everett MFA dedicated solely to the emergence of distinctly American art. The first of its kind in the country. Olmsted will invite Woodward to show four paintings at the museum in 1931, which will lead to a future solo show in 1934. Olmsted would say of Woodward,

"And steeped in the atmosphere of New England- so enamored of its tranquil and yet poignant beauty that his work becomes for all of us New England itself -Woodward has achieved landscapes that represent the finest kind of Americanism."

New Hay, 1925, made from Old Rafters is
very close to the image above known to be Dusty
Rafters which is the same size. The large size of
42" x 36" is NOT the exact aspect ratio of 30" x 27".

There are at least seven known "inside the barn" pieces of artwork and they are as follows:

• In the Old Barn, pastel, 1921
• Old Rafters, oil, 1924
• New Hay, oil, 1925 ✽
• Dusty Rafters, oil, 1929 ✽
• In Keach's Barn, pastel, 1931
• Inside the Barn, oil, 1942
• Inside the Old Barn, ???, ????

Artwork with an image is noted with an asterisk *

Editor's Note:

While we only have two pictures of the seven known paintings listed above. They are all very likely to be a similar subject and more likely to be the little red barn on the Keach farm. The Keach Farm was the artist's most studied New England farm.