Quick Reference
1941
Burnt Hill studio
Pastel on Board
Landscape
Beech Tree
22" x 29"
Deerfield Valley AA, 1941
Unknown
N/A
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Featured Artwork: Pasture Gold
RSW's Diary Comments
A color photo of the pasture cabin with its
attached garage from some time in the early 1940s
• Woodward did not keep records of the pastels he called "chalk drawings."
Editor's Note:
This pastel was made around the same time as many others. While the artist had painted the Beech Tree on Burnt Hill, in Heath (MA), as early as 1919, he did not come to own the property until 1938 and it took a little more than two years to complete the small studio cabin were he'd do much of his work... Once it was finished, Woodward churned out numerous paintings and pastels from the end of 1940 through 1941. Of the 48 or so Beech Tree paintings, a third of them were made between mid-1940 and 1941.
This pastel painting is a November scene, one of Woodward's favorite subjects. After the pasture studio was finish, that next November, Woodward made this and two other paintings! A collection of Woodward's most loved and famous paintings... At Peace, New England Heritage, The Golden Barn, From Old Deerfield, Heath Horizon, In November, and The Old House and the Young Tree, are all November paintings. For More on November and Woodward continue below ⮟
Additional Notes
Boston Evening Post, Dec. 8, 1920,
by Margaret C. Getchell
This article is too big to fit on this page. It is
6 pages long, but also a great read! Click on this
text to view a PDF. The PDF will open in a new tab.
"The hills are very lovely, even in November. Say 'even in November' to Mr. Woodward, and he will expostulate. He loves November as it touches his hills, and thinks it is a much-abused month, for it brings many a scene which invites the artist's eye as forcefully by its very wistfulness, as does the frisky joy of the springtime, or the quiet peace of winter's snow-bound fields, or the hilarity of the gay-colored autumn."
Boston Evening Post, Dec. 8, 1920, by Margaret C. Getchell ⮞
⮝ The importance of November to Woodward has not been emphasized enough by us. Note the quote above and Gethell's use of the word "wistfulness." The Collins Dictionary describes it as, "Someone who is wistful is rather sad because they want something and know that they cannot have it," It would not be unfair to say Woodward is intimately familiar with these sort of sentiments, they are perhaps the driving force behind the artistic expression of all of his work. But there is more to November than meets the eye. It is the culmination of a harvest of the year's hard work. The time to give thanks for ones blessing and find gratitude for what one has. It is a time to prepare for the long winter ahead and celebrate the holidays and welcome the new year. It is a time of reflection and repose. It possesses its own stillness and quiet contemplation.