RSW's Diary Comments

The cover of Country Life, February 1928
Woodward claims in his diary comments that
the painting is From My Studio Window, but
it is in fact, The South Window.
For the full size PDF CLICK HERE

Woodward's Diary Comments for this painting:

"Painted prior to 1928. A window picture made in the old studio that burnt in 1933 having the couch arm and the Chinese lantern in it. Published in color on the cover of "Country Life in America", February 1928. Bought from one of my Boston exhibitions by Mrs. W. Scott Fitz, but upon her death this canvas passed into the possession of her son, Edward Jackson Holmes, of 296 Beacon St., Boston, grandson of Oliver Wendell Holmes."

Editor's Notes and Corrections:

First let us state clearly that the image used for this page is not in fact From My Studio Window but rather a cropped version of My Winter Shelf we are using create a simulated perspective of the painting we now know to be From My Studio Window but do not have a good picture. [ See illustration below]

Woodward's attributes his diary remarks to the painting named From My Studio Window, however, we have discovered new information that proves he was mistaken. Woodward mixed up From My Studio Window with the painting The South Window. He did not start to assemble his "Painting Diary" until the early 1940s and he did so almost entirely from memory.

While it may seem that his mistake is egregious. We would like to first point out what the two paintings have in common. Both paintings are from the Hiram Woodward studio corner window but from different perspective. Both paintings are own by and were loaned to both the 1929 and 1944 Myles Standish Gallery exhibitions by their respective owners. Both owners were well know collectors and patrons of art and members of Boston society 's elite as well as solid supporters of Woodward's career. It is really the insurmountable differences of the two paintings that helped us find the mistake.

The South Window is a 36" x 30" upright and From My Studio Window is a square-ish, 25" x 30" landscape painting. From the aspect ratio alone this means that From My Studio Window CANNOT be the painting that appears on the cover of the February issue of Country Living magazine! This has been confirmed mathematically using the full version of the 1929 photograph of the Myles Standish showroom where The South Window hangs next to the 40" x 50" Top of the Pasture.

A photograph from the showroom of the 1929
Myles Standish Gallery Exhibition. It would be Wood-
ward's first of many - the most prominent shows be-
ing, this one, the 1931, and 1944. Woodward would
have a very close relationship with the hotel, often
leaving paintings hang in the hotel's dinning room
or lobby for years at a time.

Top of the Pasture and The South Window side
by side. There is no disputing the size. Both paintings
have multiple references to their size and we know
where Top of the Pasture is located and have con-
firmed its size. So using those parameters we can deter-
mine the size of the painting next to it. We can grab a
capture of The South Window in a photo editor
and blow it up to a near perfect H36" x W30" size.

1929 close up photograph of the Myles Standish
Gallery showroom of From My Studio Window. The
graphics point to the distinct differences of this paint-
ing to others, like The Window; A Still Life and Winter
Scene, My Winter Shelf, and/or The South Window

Editor's Note: There is MORE...

Having proved from the 1929 photograph of the Myles Standish Gallery showroom that the painting that appeared on the cover of Country Living is in fact The South Window, we where now left with what painting was in fact, From My Studio Window? There is ONLY one other window painting we know of hanging in the show and it appears in the showroom picture above. Now this begins to make much more sense. The South Window is just of the south-facing window in the studio corner and From My Studio Window is in fact looking out the corner window to the yard.

It does get stranger yet. According to the exbibit's catalog From My Studio Window was lent to the show by noted art collector John T. Spaulding. Spaulding is the buyer of record for the painting The Window; A Still Life and Winter Scene, which was given to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston as part of what is known as the "Spaulding Collection." The issue here is not that Spaulding owns both paintings. It is the fact the two paintings are extremely similar!

The Window; A Still Life and Winter Scene, 1925

The close up capture from the 1929 showroom photograph (upper right corner above) of the "other" Window Picture painting reveals that it is similar size and perspective (H25" x W30" / landscape) and we can make out several key features to the painting highlighted with graphics. The first thing that grabbed us was that there does not appear to be a curtain. The corner post looks straight and square. Next was that only a partial glimpse of the south window's first row of window panes where visible, suggesting the perspective of Woodward is rotated more right than in the original 1926 painting. From there it is easy to see it is in fact a different painting.

The mystery here is why? Why does Spaulding have two paintings of the near exact same scene? We can only say that it is possible the collector liked the scene so much and knew he was giving the 1926 painting to the MFA (or perhaps had already done so) and wanted a "keepsake" of sorts.

May, 1929, Boston Globe review
by A.J. Philpott re: The Three Barns.
To see the entire article CLICK ON
the image of the clipping...

Boston Globe, May, 1929 by A. J. Philpott

"From My Studio Window is an unforgettable bit of painting. There are about 40 pictures in the exhibition--every one of them distinctive and distinguished."

This mystery was basically unearthed by our recent exploration into the exhibition records. We are discovery things that have been right under our noses for decades. One such revelation is just how important the Myles Standish Gallery and Hotel was to Woodward and he to them. Woodward would hold his 1929 exhibition just a year into the hotel's opening and then exhibit there every year thereafter but two until it closes its doors sometime shortly after 1944. His last major exhibit.

It was the 1944 exhibition that first caught our eye because the paintings shown are among Woodward's most beloved and prized paintings. Many of them are from his own personal collection from his home and then there are painting we know as fact are owned by numerous of his best customers! It would seem to us that this was a grand finale to what was a long and wonderful relationship between the artist and the hotel.

The 1944 exhibit prompted us to look at the others and found that nearly half the paintings that exhibit at the 1929 show, also hung at the 1944 show with a number of paintings from the 1931 exhibit also making the 1944 send off... making it all significant.