RSW's Diary Comments

A picture of the top of the retaining wall (r. arrow)
for the lower terrace seen in the painting above.
In the distance, the twin peaks of Mary Lyon Hill
seen in the painting's far left top hand corner.
Woodward positioned himself somewhere near
the spot of the arrow to paint, Spring Tapestry

• There is not a diary entry for this painting.

Editor's Note:

This painting was discovered in the artist's studio having been removed from its stretcher. It is signed but had some craquelure. A beautiful painting but for whatever reason, did not appear to be treated well by the artist. There is no diary entry for it. Its stretcher was removed, and as a result began to crack and break. Oddly enough, there is also a lager unfinished canvas facing the same direction but turned more to the right showing the neighbor's house. Could this be an indication that Woodward was trying to capture the valley but somehow not satisfied by either effort?

Unfinished 7: South Over the Valley

There is also a pastel of this scene that we do not have a picture of but Dr. Mark remembers seeing it back in his day working for the artist.

There is a third painting of the valley behind the Southwick home. Its name is Spring Tapestry made in 1945 for the Vose Gallery exhibition in June the same year. Like the painting above, it is an early spring painting but later, with less snow on the ground. Also, it was not painted from the house, but rather the lower terrace indicated in the above photograph. More below ⮟

A 1940s photo taken from the "tea terrace."

⮜ There are two windows in Woodward's first floor bedroom this scene could have been painted. To the left, we only have a partial glimpse of the east facing window. The bay window that you see on the right of the picture is the living room area of the main house. The extension where the bedroom is, is not original to the house. It had to be added for his physical limitations.

The window indicated in the picture to the left would give Woodward a straighter perspective of the scene. However, the tea terrace and gardening shed would be in the way. There is a lovely bay window, facing due south that maybe the window as well ⮟

The south facing bedroom bay window

It is difficult to see the perspective from the only ⮞ picture we have of the bedroom's south window. You cannot see the lower terrace retaining wall in the dark shade of the surrounding trees. Also, the picture is pointing northeast towards Putt's Hill and not the direction of the view. Still, the shape of the bay window does illustrate that Woodward could park himself to the left side of the window, turned pointing southeast through the right side of the window and get an unobstructed and clear view of the scene. We think this is the most likely location.

This painting was previously named "Up the Valley". It was renamed by its current owner. It was fully restored and now is in magnificent condition as can be seen by the picture above.