RSW's Diary Comments

Keach's Stove Sepia print

"Painted in 1931. Old stove with quaint design in sitting-dining room of Keach's farm. Sold through Macbeth Gallery, to Mr. Bartlett Arkell for permanent collection of the Canajoharie (N.Y.) Art Gallery."

Comments on the back of a sepia print:

"Nov. 10th---this painting is now at the Macbeth Gallery---11 East 57th St. , N.Y.C. "Nov. 11th---today this canvas was bought by Mr. Bartlett Arkell and presented to the Canajoharie N.Y. Art Museum for its permanent collection."

Editor's Note:

We have not counted the number of mentions by a newspaper for any other painting, but Keach's Stove stood out with a whopping 14 article mentions over a six year period and its image was used twice as the featured artwork. To us this suggest the subject holds a strong appeal and impact for its time.

RSW letter to friend F. Earl Williams:

"You will be interested to hear that today I had a letter from Macbeth's saying that for their permanent collection of the Canajoharie Museum of Fine Arts, Mr. Arkell had bought Desk Corner and Keach's Stove--check was enclosed. I shall miss both canvases greatly---- Keach's Stove I always considered one of my unsung masterpieces--now it has found its place-- and its song." (*the emphasis is ours)

April 4, 1937, Salt Lake City Tribune
We had to do a lot more editing of this clipping than
usual because it covers two pages! The image and first
paragraph (see quote to the left) and the REST of the
article, the REAL article was the next page. This means
Woodward and his painting was the "lead-in" or "teaser"
introducing the whole show to the audience. It was dif-
ficult to make it work. Click here to see full version

To the Right:  Is a clipping for the Springville (UT) International Art Exhibition. It is the artist's first year participating in this startlingly big event, which started at a small town high school and continues to this day.

A lot of varied things can be attributed to someone's influence or relevance in any number of fields, such as the arts, sports, politics, and even science. "Are you a story that will draw eyes?" Woodward's work appears in a surprisingly large number of newspapers for special exhibitions. Even those with far more popular and famous artists. We ask you to consider how this happens... a reporter/photographer is sent to the show to report and take pictures. Or a representative for the event sends the newspaper several pictures to choose from for their upcoming editions. An editor for that newspaper selects the artwork they believe will appeal the most to their readers, and Woodward's work was selected by the Salt Lake Tribune editors, not just in 1937 but in 1938 and 1939 as well. What will catch the audience's eye? Of the 12 years Woodward participated in the event, his work was chosen for the newspaper, six different years! This is not everything, but it is also not nothing... Woodward gets a lot of press and that should not be ignored.

Salt Lake Tribune, Sunday morning, April 4, 1937.

"Keach's Stove, by Robert Strong Woodward, shows the artist's keen sense for the human element in the world. He has gone to the countryside among the common folk and has given us many pictures representing types of country life, always catching some vital point that makes each painting a special feature of that life. He has shown in this painting, as in others, the ability to take the commonest of subjects and by the magic of his brush to transform them into objects of keenest interest, if not always of beauty."

April 26, 1931, Springfield Republican, a stand
alone 'teaser' of the Keach's Stove with the caption,
"An unusual canvas by Robert Strong Woodward
being shown at the Tryon gallery at Smith College."

"We are most charmed by Mr. Woodward's sentiment as it is expressed in such mundane subjects as 'Keach's Stove' and by the wistful treatment of the oldest streets of Boston in the chalk medium."

North Adams Transcript, June, 1932

See also A Country Interior for a similar painting of the Keach residence.

A Country Interior, 1928
There is another interior paintings of the Keach home we
only know of through a recollection by a close friend, Helen
Patch, "Rob painted their kitchen-stoop:- an incredible mess
of mops, pails, broken steps-- weathered and unpainted. The
picture was uproariously funny in our sense but revealed
also the tragedy of broken, unfulfilled, and hopeless lives."

We cannot stress more vehemently just how important the Keach Farm was to Woodward's message. While Keach's Stove might be the most exhibited and mentioned in newspapers, the farm's little red barn appears in the most exhibited paintings (62) exceeding the Halifax House (48). The Beech Tree AND Heath Pasture only add up to 61x combined. When adding up the entirety of the known Keach Farm paintings, including the little red barn, and how many times they have exhibited totals 140 times! No other singular subject is close... also, Mrs. Patch was way off the mark about how Woodward saw the Keach's. While perhaps quite common folk, he related and identified with the persevering spirit they represented. To him they were not pathetic at all.