RSW's Diary Comments

Greenfield Gazette Recorder
Saturday, November 30, 1928

• Woodward did not keep records of the pastels he called "chalk drawings."

Editor's Note:

There are four articles linked to the exhibition held in the home of Miss Anna Koch of Greenfield, MA. Two clippings announced the event with dates and times, the third is a letter to the editor of the Greenfield Gazette Recorder just following the show, and the last is its summation, mostly listing what paintings were bought and who bought them a week after.

This painting, North of Monadnock, was listed under another exhibit at the Koch home which turns out to be an error. Dr. Mark listed this and five other named paintings as its own, separate, exhibit the following year in 1929. Enlarging the article to the right, you will see it is marked "11/30 1928," on the upper right hand side.

We have a policy of not creating an art work page unless we have something concrete to establish its existence. This pastel clearly exists because of the writer's review.

What strikes us most about the Gazette Recorder article is that it is dated a week before the exhibit, and yet, the reporter has seen the work prior. This leads us to ask if the exhibit was set up a week before it opened rather than the week of... or did the reporter get special access to the paintings at the artist's studio? The three other articles below ⮟

North Adams Transcript
Monday, Nov. 26, 1928

Greenfield Recorder Gazette
Sunday, Dec. 7, 1928

North Adams Transcript
Monday, Dec. 10, 1928

Majestic Monadnock, c. 1946
A painting of Monadnock from the southeast in Jaffrey,
New Hampshire.
and that he is on it. Visit the Roads & Streets Gallery

To the left we offer you a view of Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire from East Jaffrey titled, Majestic Monadnock. East Jaffrey is southeast of the mountain. There is another view of Mt. Monadnock by Woodward from the southwest looking north with, Majestic New Hampshire Magic. North of Monadnock is well documented with more pictures than we expected. In fact, we could not find one that was not licensed by someone and we are talking big players like Getty and Shutterstock. It is because the view from the north is sprinkled with are bunch of ponds and lakes formed by glaciers... there is the Howe Reservoir, Stone Pond and Dublin Pond. If we were to hazard a guess, Dublin Pond would be our pick. That is the subject of most of the images we found. One picture really captured our attention because it was from the same year as the pastel. It is a hand-colored photograph of Mount Monadnock from Dublin Lake (today named pond) by Charles H. Sawyer (1868-1954). Mr. Sawyer seemed to share Woodward's aesthetic because this is what we (Brian) was picturing in his head before he found the photograph. The image is owned by the New Hampshire Historical Society, and while they offer a request for use option, the option did not really work so we encourage you to visit their page dedicated to this photograph (page will open in a new tab).

A picture of the front of Koch's Grocery Store,
c. 1925 from the Scrapbook page Abbie Putnam Labelle
and her recollection of RSW and her mother, Lena
Putnam, who worked for Woodward for many years.

⮜  The N.A.D. is the National Academy of Design

We do not know who Miss Anna Koch was exactly. We believe she was related to the family that own a grocery store, Koch's Food Store, in Greenfield, and another location in Turner Falls, MA. There could be more. We are looking into it. The exhibition held in her home in 1928 is not the only reference we have of Woodward's relationship with her. She is mentioned in his 1932 personal diary...

RSW's 1932 personal diary, March 12th

"Very cold with wind, but clear. Packed two pictures for N.A.D. taking all morning. "Out of N.E. Soil" and
"Grandmother's Lamp". Greenfield in afternoon with Mother and Julia. Mother to Moore's while Fabian
and I bought Julia a dress! Saw Mrs. Koch and Mrs. Tullis on business. Letters all evening."


His mother is Mary Strong. Her and Woodward's father Orion Leroy (O.L.) moved back to Massachusetts in the late 1920s and where living with their son by 1932. His father having gone blind for some unknown reason. Julia is one of his many cousins. The two were very close. She even worked from him for a period of time.