Featured Artwork: Road Guardians

Maple Guardians, 1952: Made more than 25
years apart, this painting sure fits the description.

"Painted prior to 1930, about 1927 or '8. A painting made on the road from Shelburne Falls to Conway a mile from Conway. Painted while Francis O"Brien was caring for me. Sent down to New York to John Murphy's Studio, among others, for Mrs. Wm. H. Moore's inspection. From the last she chose this as the first canvas of mine she bought and it has hung since in her drawing room at 4 East 54th Street, New York, N. Y.."

The Boston Globe, Dec., 1926 by A. J. Philpott

"Road Guardians is another fine achievement. Those old trees, over-arching with their foliage, a stretch of New England road on a sunshiny day, make a picture that goes straight home to you. The light filters through the foliage and splashes on the road in iridescent beauty. It is a gem of a picture."

Dec. 23, 1926, Boston Globe

Editor's Notes & Addendum:

There are a few things to discuss regarding this artwork, so we will begin with Woodward's diary comments for this painting. The obvious discrepancy are the years. This is where the artist made the most mistakes. For whatever reason, he did not double-check his recall with documents he had saved over the years. A quick check of his 1920s scrapbook would show this painting exhibited in 1926 at the Lyman-Longfellow House ballroom. It was even well reviewed by prominent art critic A.J. Philpott.

If the artist's recall of the events regarding Mrs. Moore, his patron-saint, are correct, then the diary proves Mrs. Moore did not attend the Lyman event. We have wondered for some time whether she did because, (1) she has a friendship with the show's organizers Mrs. Lyman and Mrs. Minnie Eliot. (2) She has an estate, "Rockmarge," north of Boston in Pride's Crossing, MA, and (3) she has just recently unburdened Woodward the cost of his medical care, nurse and attendant by establishing a trust for his care. While in the newspapers credit for Woodward's "discovery" was given to Mrs. Lyman, behind the scenes Mrs. Eliot is the ringleader and sole connection to Lyman and Moore... and John Spalding as well, who is said to have bought the first painting of the exhibit, The Window; A Still Life and Winter Scene., which is in correctly cited in the article image above as My Winter Shelf.

A portrait photograph of Ada Small
Moore from roughly the same time period
she came into Woodward's life.

Equally interesting to this story is the painting seen above, Maple Guardians . The description of this painting, Road Guardians, by the artist are strikingly similar to the 1952 painting's appearance. However, both were made some 25 to 27 years apart! Maple Guardians won an award at Woodward's last showing for the annual Deerfield Valley Artist Association in 1952, which also happens to be the year he retired...

The thing about this coincidence is that it is not the only one. Since 1937 to his retirement, the artist started pulling paintings stored since the 1920s he was not satisfied with originally and "re-painted" them. We are also finding that many of these subjects were among his favorites, especially after learning he made two "Winter Evening Stream" paintings (One in 1951 and the other in 1952), at the same time as Maple Guardians. The second "Winter Evening Stream" painted in 1952, Woodland Mystery, is his second to LAST painting before he retires. His last painting, appropriately, was a Window Picture Painting.