RSW's Diary Comments

Silent Evening Sepia

"Painted in the 1920's. A 25" x 30" upright made in my early career from a large 40" x 50" called Evening Silence (which see). Bought first by Mrs. George D. Dresser of Putnam, Ct., owned by her for a number of years, then about 1932 she gave it back to me. I again exhibited it for a few years then it was bought by Miss Lucia Russell, 27 George St., Greenfield, Massachusetts."

Editor's Note:

Mrs. Julia Dresser of "Putnam, Ct." was born and raised in Chicago, Il. Her father John Wesley Doane, was an industrial financier focusing mostly on transportation and grocery wholesale was also from Connecticut and had a home in Thompson, CT. Woodward and Mrs. Dresser seemed quite close but we do not know how they met. Was it Chicago when Woodward was in Peoria?

Mrs. Dresser had a summer cottage in Riverton, VT, that Woodward visited every so often. We know he visited in 1925 and 1928, and it was the 1928 visit that resulted in Woodward making what we call the "Vermont Five" paintings of the Norton farm just down the ways from the Dresser Cottage.

A picture of the Dresser Cottage, Riverton, VT.

Mrs. Dresser and her husband George did not have and children. When their health began to wane they contacted Woodward and insisted he come to collect his paintings. We say "insisted" because we believe they would have had to for him to do it. What we know of people returning paintings is that he disliked it very much.

There is some question as to what was returned. We know this painting, as well as September Mountain were returned because he says as much in both diary comments for each canvas. However, we suspect that the Dressers also had the painting In Vermont because there is no record of it until it first exhibits at the Vose Gallery in Boston in 1942. But by some weird coincidence, Woodward makes its larger brother, Up in Vermont around 1934 from its smaller brother. Of all the errors we find in Woodward's painting diary, he mistakes the year the most, however, it is the things he omits that cause the greatest frustration.

Only, we do not think the Dressers bought In Vermont. We believe Woodward gave it to them either as a gift or on loan for hosting him on the trip he made the "Vermont Five" paintings. George Dresser passed in September of 1936 and Julia followed in February, 1937.  ⮟ CONTINUE FOR MORE ⮟

A picture of the 1929 Myles Standish Gallery, Boston, MA.
Enlarging the picture will reveal the names of the paintings.

This painting holds a very unique distinction... The two exhibits we have records of it exhibiting are both at the Myles Standish Gallery in Boston, MA. The picture to the right is a photograph of the 1929 show.

What makes this interesting is that, of the two exhibits, each have the same total number of paintings and 10 of the paintings are not matching but are split equally between the two shows. Two of the canvases share similar names but are different sizes. There are two pastels more in 1929 and two canvases more in 1944.

An old post card of the Myles Standish Hotel. From what
we can surmise the gallery was on the first floor to the left
corner of the picture. Enlarge it to see illustration...

The 1929 show was RSW's first at Myles, and the 1944 show was his last BIG show at Myles and it was the last in the gallery (three paintings hung in the hotel in 1945). It gets more interesting to know that each event where 15 years apart to the day! We believe the reason for this was that the Myles Standish Hotel, finished just before the Great Depression struggled for years to survive but ultimately, with the onset of World War II could not manage a second crisis.

At the same time, The GI Bill which will give those who served in the armed services the opportunity to go to college, paid by the government; the shuttered hotel will be purchased by fledgling Boston University and converted into its first dormitory. Prior to that, BU was exclusively, a commuter school

Finally one last point, we do not believe that Silent Evening was made around 1929. The style and look of the painting is clearly Woodward's pre-1922 style, so we split the difference from when he began painting in 1918 with circa 1920 (despite the red "S" in the signature dating it around 1922. The circa designation covers it all). Given that we suspect Mrs. Dresser may have first met Woodward in Illinois, it is possible she was also an early customer prior to his 1926 Lyman exhibit. In fact, he definitely knew her prior because he painted September Mountain from her Vermont cottage in 1925.

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This oil is now privately owned by a family in Maine who has written to us the following:

RSW's signature from the bottom left of Silent Evening.