RSW's Diary Comments

"Painted around 1930. A painting of the interior of a sugar house, when they are boiling sap. Painted from inside the Gray Brothers" Sugar House in Ashfield, where Fabian carried me inside to work, because too cold and windy to work outside the day I went over there to paint. Made around 1930. So far as I know the only painting ever made of this subject matter, boiling inside."

Comments on the back of a sepia print:

"This is the interior of the Gray Sugar House on Baptist corner, Ashfield, MA. The large holding tub is now gone."

In the Sugar House; Boiling

The Sugar house is still in use, located near the Edge Hill golf course in Ashfield, Mass. The large holding tank is no longer present.

This painting was painted during a time when Woodward was drawing and painting a number of sugar houses (between 1928 and 1932). However, the only known interiors are this painting and a chalk drawing named In The Sugar House; Boiling .

Woodward was also painting a number of paintings of sap being collected. We suggest you check out When Drifts Melt Fast.