Featured Artwork: Hills of Massachusetts

The Hills, 1937- '38
See the picture below of Woodward painting this canvas!

Woodward did not keep records of his chalk drawings (pastels). We know about this chalk drawing from anote in reference to its sibling oil painting- see below.

Editor's Note:

From the descriptions below we cannot help but think this chalk drawing and its matching oil painting are a similar if not a close facsimile to the 1937- '38 painting of the hills below the Beech Tree on Burnt Hill in Heath, MA, The Hills (to the right). Woodward bought the 160 acre pasture in 1938, build a small pasture house / cabin / studio facing southeast towards his beloved home, the Buckland Hills. The studio house burned in 1950 and we can't help noting the coincidence of the years of all these paintings. Could Woodward have made this chalk and its accompanying oil in remembrance of his loss? The Hills being possibly one of the first paintings made when he bought the property and these pieces being the last after it was gone?

Woodward (1937- '38) painting the "Hills" shirt-
less, hands coated with paint... Click on the pic to
see a side by side of edited color and original photo

Note made by Woodward:

"Very dramatic grey sky. There is a chalk with the same name."

Newspaper source is unknown:

"Robert Strong Woodward's Hills of Massachusetts is a very interesting view of low mountains enveloped in blue haze and touched by the slanting rays of the sun."