RSW's Diary Comments

The Diary Comments from the oil painting Gray New England:

"Painted about 1930. Made from the Smith place in North Heath. A chalk drawing of the same subject is owned by Reverend Arthur T. Kinsolving, noted Episcopal rector."

Editor's Note:

Grace Episcopal Church, Amherst, MA

We believe Woodward erred with the middle initial of Rev. Kinsolving. The Kinsolving family is one of the great families of clergy in the U. S. From Rev. Ovid Americus Kinsolving (1823-94), a descendant of British settlers in Tidewater, Va. Four of his sons, and four more of his grandsons and one great-grandson all entered the rectory according to a Time Magazine article dated March, 23, 1933. All of them are famous for one thing or another, Bishops in Brazil, Texas, and Arizona, etc. All Episcopalians to which was Woodward's church.

We believe he is referring to the academic, Dr. Rev. Arthur "LEE" Kinsolving, whose nickname was "little Tui" after his uncle, Brazilian Bishop, Arthur Barksdale "Big Tui" Kinsolving II. Arthur Lee graduated Phi Beta Kappa and won a Rhoades Scholarship to study At Oxford for a year. His first assignment was as the rector of the Grace Church at Amherst College (1924- '32). He left Amherst to take rector position with the prestigious Trinity Church in Boston (1932-'40), and later returning to collegiate life as the rector of the Trinity Church at Princeton University (1940-'47). He ended his career as pastor of the St. James' Episcopal Church in Manhattan and retired to Baltimore to be close to his cousin, Rev. Arthur Barksdale Kinsolving III.
READ ARTHUR LEE's OBITUARY HERE

The farm house in 2006

Regarding the Chalk Drawing in the
from an unknown source...

"A rambling farmhouse with a series of sheds, barns, and other accessories to the old-time country home is sympathetically drawn in Gray New England."

Note-of-caution: Initially the date and source of the above quote was attributed to Jeanette Matthews review of the Pynchon Gallery Exhibit in Springfield where the drawing exhibited but reviewer Jeanette Matthews make no mention of Gray New England in her review. There is likely another article, possibly the Springfield Union newspaper or perhaps the Hampshire Gazette. We will continue to search for the correct search.

Also: Woodward never says the chalk drawing has the SAME name. He says only that the drawing is the "same subject." This could mean it is the buildings from a different perspective. It is not even clear if the sky is the same.