RSW's Diary Comments

Diary Comments taken from Out of the Past

August Shade, 1938

"Painted in summer of 1930. My first painting of the old Hitchcock Elm in Old Deerfield. The house, once the studio of George Fuller, now owned by his son Arthur Fuller. Sold from my first Macbeth Gallery Exhibition to Mr. and Mrs. Francis M. Whitehouse of New York and Manchester, Mass. (Mr. Whitehouse, 1942, died a few years ago.)"

Editor's Note:

The diary remarks above do not add any furthering information other than to suggest that this painting, which this is the only image we have is very similar to Out of the Past. It may have been another version of the original Out of the Past painting. Our records show this painting was sent to his good friend, Harold Grieve's Los Angeles studio. The artist did this on occasion with subjects he really liked. He would sent another version to the West coast, to either Grieve or art collector Mrs. Josephine Everett.

He would make another painting of the same subject in August Shade, to the right, but added a young couple in what appears to be 1880-style clothing.

Photograph of the Elm tree and House
from around the time Woodward painted it.

The house seen in this painting was built in 1783, on a tract of land that in 1686 was designated as Deerfield communial land until 1759 and is affectionately referred to as "The Little Brown House" on Albany Road in Old Deerfield near the Academy. By the 1880's and '90's the house was in terrible condition.

In 1890, George Sheldon a 'Preservationist' and founder of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association (1870), one of the first preservation societies in the country wrote and published a book on the home's history and restoration titled The Little Brown House on Albany Road.

The Elm Tree along the house derives its name from the numerous 'Hitchcocks' that lived there throughout its history, the most prominent being Edward Hitchcock who taught at the Deerfield Academy, rising to become its principal (1815-18) and then on to teach at and become the president of Amherst College in 1845. The bookstore at the academy is named after him.

"The Little Brown House" also served as the studio of George Fuller (1822 - 1884) was an American figure and portrait painter. As can be seen from the photograph to the right, one of the more impressive features of "The Little Brown House" was its large east facing window which could serve as a great 'artist window.'

"The Little Brown House" from the front