Quick Reference

Time Period:
c. 1919

Location:
Unknown

Medium:
Oil on Canvas

Type:
Landscape

Category:
Sugaring, Trees

Size:
30" x 25"

Exhibited:
Bradley Polytechnic Institute, 1919

Purchased:
Unknown

Provenance:
NA

Noteworthy:

This painting, along with several others were sent to be exhibited at the Bradley Institute, Peoria,IL early in his career and around the time RSW won the Hallgarten First Prize.

Featured Artwork: In The Sugar Bush

Click here for a high resolution image of painting

RSW's Diary Comments

There are not many diary comments for paintings this early in the artist career. This is no exception.

Editor's Note:

A closer look at the sugar maples

This painting hung at a homecoming of sorts for Woodward. He did not attend the 1919 Arts & Crafts Show at his Alma mater, the Bradley Polytechnic Institute, in Peoria, IL. He sent 7 paintings (we only know the names of four) as a triumphant return to the school that shaped him more than any other. It just happened to come a month after Woodward was awarded the First Prize in the Hallgarten category for best artist under 35 at the National Academy of Design.

This long sought after painting came to us recently from it new owner and we could not be more excited to have this picture. It is everything we imaged it could be and MORE. For a while we suggested it might be similar to When Sap Runs, which is the only other painting we know that features the technical definition of a "sugarbush." However, they different in scale. When Sap Runs, is a more up close focus on the sugar maples and their buckets. Whereas this painting is large in scope and trees. It is a wonderful combination of the artist's early wood interiors and sap gathering paintings, without the gatherers such as, At Sugaring Time.

We thank the owner for sharing this with us and their gracious consideration.

Woodward's signature sans the trademark Red "S" which he did not start using until 1922.

CHECK OUT our page on the Bradley Event

Additional Notes

RSW re-typed this critique from the Peoria Illinois Journal Transcript from April 27, 1919

The Peoria (IL) Journal Transcript, April 27, 1919
Someone re-typed it for RSW and sent it to him.

RSW had in his Scrapbooks three re-typed reviews from The 7th Annual Bradley College (now University) exhibit. We are unsure why he does not have the original clippings. There is a family in Peoria who housed him for a year to stay in school while his parents got settled in Los Angeles. Perhaps, Mrs. Bourland did him the kindness of typing out all that was said about him. ⮞

Peoria (IL) Journal Transcript ⮞

"'Snow Pattern' is probably the most popular picture with its rare coloring, and its early atmosphere. 'Along the Hill Road' is another that bids for first choice as also does 'In the Sugar Bush' which shows sugar maples with red buckets to catch the sap."

From the Springfield Republican, April, 1919

"The imaginative and highly beautiful In the Sugar Bush full of the wildness of the maple grove, with the red sap buckets and the superb old trees."

Links to the other paintings mentioned in the review:

Out of the Mist

Snow Pattern

Along the Hill Road

In August of 1977, Dr. Mark received a letter from a gallery in North Wilbraham, MA, informing Doc their intent to sell the painting named In the Sugar Bush and offered him first shot at purchasing the painting which the letter listed for $1,950.00. Included with the letter was a photograph of the painting, however, the picture has since been lost and as of yet found. We still have hope we will run across it someday.