RSW's Diary Comments

Old picture of the Southwick studio's
balcony door. A very similar scene to the
painting you see above.

"Painted winter 1938 [sic]. Glass door and window of Buckland studio, looking out on balcony, with table, chair, etc. in snow. Sold by the Grand Central Art Gallery of New York to Mrs. R. S. Teagle, Hotel Pierre, New York City."

Editor's Note:

One thing is fairly consistent when it comes to Woodward's painting diary and that is the year the painting was made is typically wrong. We have come to the conclusion, knowing the artist like we do, that he did not really care about the diary. It was Dr. Mark's ideal when he began driving the artist on errands and excursions to paint. Woodward's friend, F. Earl Williams loved the idea and encouraged it as well. We believe Woodward felt obligated.

If Woodward cared about the diary, he would have put more into it rather than simply rely on his memory. He had at his disposal much of the same material we do... clippings, letters, what have you. The one thing he never gets wrong, however, are the painting owners and for that we are grateful. One last point on this matter, RSW started the diary around 1942 and STILL omitted nearly 30% of all the 1940 paintings including one that won a prize! We rest our case.

In this picture you can see the balcony door of the
studio's southeast corner we call the desk corner. That
is where RSW would do most of his work and letter
writing. The Southwick studio was quite homey.

For more context on this painting, if it was painted in 1936 (according to the exhibition list compiled from exhibit programs) than that would make this one of the earliest Southwick "Picture Window Paintings" as we like to call them. Woodward did not move into the Southwick home and studio until March of 1935, nine months after his Hiram Woodward home and studio was struck by lightning and burned down. He painted a canvas of the studio's artist north window from the carriage house's supply closet shortly after moving in and did not really begin painting Picture Window Paintings regularly until after 1937.

While the paintings are very loved and admired, so much so that, he is probably best remembered for them. They only make up about 16% of his entire catalog and were primarily painted over 14 year period. His last painting before retiring was a Picture Window Painting, Spring Window (1952)