RSW's Diary Comments

Painted in 1919 (although we do not know where Dr. Mark got this info but the style fits the time period).

Excerpt from a letter written by Woodward:

"The rest of the paintings you saw were 25 x 30 and 27 x 30, the smallest size I paint. One called "October" represents a steep hillside clearing ablaze with autumn foliage on some few remaining trees, held together by the brooding blue haze of our October atmosphere. Smoke arises to the left from a faint fire of burning brush and piles of cord wood lie in the middle foreground. This picture is one of Mrs. Cutter's favorites." ⮟

The name on the back of the stretcher.

Editor's Note:

There is a painting simply named "October" that exhibited at the 1922 Springfield Art League annual exhibition. Another painting by the same name reportedly hung at the Lyman Residence event in 1926 and THEN another time at the Myles Standish Gallery in 1929. We do not think the 1922 painting is the same as the 1926 and 1929 painting. See the '29 description below ⮟

Boston Globe, May, 1929 by A. J. Philpott

"......October is a powerful bit of painting---rich in color contrast and typically New England in an almost undefinable way...." "How effectively he has placed that red tree in the picture entitled October."

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June 28, 1928, Pasadena
Post: This is the only known
picture of Mrs. Everett.

Josephine Pettingill Everett

Mrs. Josephine Everett of Cleveland, OH, was a leading advocate of the arts, as well as a assiduous collector of art. In terms of legacy, she has two. One is her collection of art to the Cleveland Museum of Fine Art in her daughter's name, The Dorthy Burnham Everett Collection. The other is that Josephine is credited with writing the check that bought the land that the Hollywood Bowl would be built.

She is one of Woodward's most faithful customers and patrons. She frequently lent portions of her collection to exhibit at fine museums, such as the Los Angeles Muesm of Art, and included her Woodwards to the loan.

We do not know when the two came to know each other. Woodward spent many years of his youth in Ohio, the closest to Cleveland being Akron, and lived near the Everetts when he moved to California. This may be one of the only instances his father Orion's work as a real estate developer may have benefited his son. It is very likely, the relationship began in California when Orion was involved in the development of the Balboa Recreational Area for the Pasadena light rail (trolley) system for which Mr. Everett was involved.

A Buckland Farm, 1918
The style of the above painting is reminiscent of
this recently discovered canvas made in 1918.

At the death of Mrs. Everett, this painting was willed to the Pasadena Art Museum, along with several other paintings. The museum suffering a financial crisis, sold Evening Silence in 1970 to an unknown buyer. The museum may have also sold this paintings around the same time. The museum was merged into the Norton Simon Museum. Its whereabouts is unknown to this day.

In the process of assembling all of the Woodward oil paintings for this website it was found that there were probably 3 canvases which he titled "October," the other two are -- October (1926-29) and October (1944).