Featured Artwork: Early Sugaring #1

The Golden Barn, 1918
Another of the six paintings sold wholesale to J.H.
Miller during the Depression of 1920-1921 for $1,000.00

"Painted circa 1920. One of my very early canvases. Among a lot bought by J. H. Miller Co. of Springfield, it was bought from them around 1935-36 and now owned by F. Earl Williams, at present (1944) principal of the High School at Gardner (19 Cherry Street). A sugar maple in woodland on a rocky knoll painted at 'Uncle' Will Wells's sugar house on the Buckland - S.F. road. A later canvas of Harrison Keach's sugar house I see was given the same title (owned by the E. H. Naylor children) so I have added the #1 and #2 to the titles."

EDITOR'S NOTES:

This painting's image has sat in the Unnamed Gallery for a few years now. It was discovered in a collection of Kodachrome color slides given to the Smithsonian Museum as part of Woodward's collection by his good friend, F. Earl Williams named in the above diary comment. We simply never put 2 and 2 together. If you read the diary entry carefully it specifically points out that the first "Early Sugaring" painting was a different subject from that of the later painting given the same name by its owners unbeknownst to the artist until a later time. This one is the "rocky knoll" of Woodward's uncle Will Wells, not the Harrison Keach sugar house.

The original Kodachrome slide from the mid-to-late
1930s. Kodachrome film was not introduced until 1935
the year Williams purchased the painting from Miller.

It was not until its current owner contacted us and we went to take new pictures of the painting that we realized our oversight. On the back of the stretcher, written clearly in Woodward's hand, is the name "Early Sugaring." Confirmation of the provenance linked the painting to Williams and that is when all of the pieces came together... This is the first and only painting named by the artist. Williams apparently took a picture of his painting sometime after he bought it from the Miller Gallery. He did it outside in sunlight, and so we had no idea if he was doing this for Woodward while visiting or some other reason. Like we said, we just did not put two and two together. Part of the reason for that is that we also missed the fact Williams bought it in 1935, fourteen years later. We are not even sure Woodward and Williams knew each other in the 1920s.

The name clearly written on the stretcher

Early Sugaring #2, formally Early Sugaring #1

Early Sugaring #3, formally Early Sugaring #2

Given the new information we have. We felt it necessary to alter and correct all of the "Early Sugaring" paintings. It took some doing, but we have edited each page to reflect the true order of the paintings and ensure that they match Woodward's diaries.

So, what was once, the previously unnamed painting becomes, now, "Early Sugaring #1." The former "Early Sugaring #1" now becomes Early Sugaring #3 and "Early Sugaring #2", stays Early Sugaring #2." Our changes now match the painting diary. We will always side with staying true to Woodward's painting diary and the names he gives the paintings. If he says the two known and confirmed provenance paintings are "E.S. #1 and E.S. #2" and there are diary entries for both, then that is how they will stay until we learn otherwise. Of course, before this we had, the now, E.S. #2 and #3 mixed up and backwards too. That was the result of a corrupted picture we and recently found its original and realize that mistake as well.

Finally, Early Sugaring #2 was the painting owned by Emmett Naylor and used to make Early Sugaring #3, the painting that was owned by the Weldon Hotel in Greenfield, MA. The first painting to hang in the Weldon was 1922, and an exhibit was held there in 1934 after the artist's Hiram studio fire. These two paintings are very different, the first being rectangular and the second is squarish. We believe this was to fit the space it would hang in Weldon.

Woodward's signature entirely in red was signed at a time he was experimenting with different styles.