RSW's Diary Comments

"Painted in about 1938. Painting of the Buckland church made from the road in front of Trow's. Chosen by Emmett Naylor and hung over his fireplace in Cummington, but as I felt it too small for the place I made a 22 x 42 of the same subject, the next season, which Emmett installed just before his death; then this 25" x 30" was bought by Mr. P.H.B. Frelinghuysen of Manchester, Vt. and Morristown, N.J."

Comments on the back of a sepia print:

"Tree branches as frame"

The follow diary excerpt is from Heart of New England:

"Painted in 1939. A larger painting of the Mary Lyon Church in Buckland, made for the home of my dearest friend Emmet Hays Naylor in Cummington to take the place of the 25" x 30" of the same subject (later bought by Mr. F. B. Frelinghuysen) which Emmett had chosen but which was not the right proportion for the space. He had it but a few weeks when he died. My first view of it was at his funeral. After his death it was given back to me by the family. I sent it to the Grand Central Art Galleries, who sold it to Mr. and Mrs. L. C. Howard, Arlington, New Jersey."

Heart of New England

Adaline Havemeyer Frelinghuysen
from her 1905 Bryn Mawr College year-
book. Her sister, Electra, is known for
founding the Shelburne Museum, VT.

Adaline Havemeyer Frelinghuysen is far and away Woodward's best customer. A resident of Morristown, NJ, she and her husband Peter Hood Ballentine Frelinghuysen Sr. (a former law school classmate of not-yet-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and served as an usher at his wedding to Eleanor) summered in Manchester, VT. The earliest records we have of their relationship began with the start of the Southern Vermont Artist Association in 1927.

Over the years, we have learned that she and her husband bought as many as 40 paintings and we continue to discover more each year. Primarily because there were a number of private sales that were not recorded in Woodward's records, as well as, Adaline's appreciation for pastels and chalks which Woodward did not keep records. We believe her love of pastels comes from her mother (Louisine W. E. Havemeyer) and her close friendship with an artist famous for her pastels, Mary Cassatt. Cassatt was also friends with Edgar Degas one of the most famous pastel artists of all time whom we believe had a significant influence on Woodward.

If you are wondering, Adaline is the daughter of controversial sugar magnate and renowned art collector, Henry Osborne Havemeyer of the famed Havemeyer Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Her mother, a leader of New York City's suffrage movement.