RSW's Diary Comments

The program card for the 1926 Lyman Exhibit

"Painted prior to 1925. A smaller canvas of the interior of Herbert Keach's barn made from the larger canvas Dusty Rafters which see."

Editor's Note:

Dusty Rafters is struck out in the diary comments above because Woodward was mistaken. However, instead of correcting it and altering his actual words, we chose this option instead.

The painting he was thinking of is Old Rafters. Dusty Rafters does not appear until 1929 and exhibits extensively for nearly seven years. In the exhibit program to the right, one can clearly see highlighted, #17 Old Rafters from the 1926 Lyman Residence show. This is the 42" x 36" painting New Hay was made from. We have additional supporting evidence for Dusty Rafters appearing on several exhibit programs from 1929 thru 1932.

Comments on the back of the New Hay sepia print:

"This canvas speaks for itself! A number of years ago a larger canvas of the same subject was bought by Mrs. W. Scott Fitz."

This painting is the only high-quality image we have of any of the eight known paintings.

There are a number of early Woodward paintings that were painted in a style of impasto so heavy on the brush it has ridges that pick up the slightest light from any direction. Often this feature makes them nearly impossible to photograph without a glare taking away from the vibrancy of the piece. New Hay is one of those pieces. In fact, it has been our greatest challenge. As we get better at taking these pictures using new ideas and methods we will continue to do our best to always provide you the best image available. Enlarge the hay side to get a close look at how extraordinary the painting is!

The chicken and barrels

The new hay

There are at least seven known "inside the barn" pieces of artwork and they are as follows:

• In the Old Barn, pastel, 1921
• Old Rafters, oil, 1924
• New Hay, oil, 1925 ✽
• Dusty Rafters, oil, 1929 ✽
• In Keach's Barn, pastel, 1931
• Inside the Barn, oil, 1942
• Inside the Old Barn, ???, ????

Artwork with an image is noted with an asterisk *

Editor's Note:

While we only have two pictures of the seven known paintings listed above. They are all very likely to be a similar subject and more likely to be the little red barn on the Keach farm. The Keach Farm was the artist's most studied New England farm..

The Little Red Barn

The barn is the Keach's "Little Red Barn" which happens to be one of the artist's favorite subjects- inside and out. The barn appears, one way or another, in nineteen various paintings as the backdrop of several other subjects, such as the farmyard out side of it, or the Greening apple tree just beyond it, or the pasture behind it. Then there is the painting to the left where it is the featured subject and the paintings Summer Barns and Twin Barns which it shares the limelight with its attached sibling.