RSW's Diary Comments

Spring Tapestry Sepia

"Painted in 1944 or 45. A view of Putts Hill and Buckland valley beneath it with the incinerator apple tree thrown against the mountain and valley. In the pale tans, violets, grays and ochres of April, before any green appears. A rather delicate bland canvas in color."

Editor's Note:

Woodward is notoriously bad at "guessing" the year he made a painting even in the 1940s when he was assembling the painting diary. For all we know, he wrote the entry above in 1954. But we are going to stick with 1945 as the year this painting was made. The "circa" c. is a courtesy.

The Vose Gallery held an exhibition of Woodward's work in June of 1945. It is unlikely he made this beautiful painting, let it sit for a year THEN exhibited it. It is much more likely he painted it around April of 1945 and sent it to Boston for the event.

An early 1940s Kodachrome photo of RSW picnicking,
with Dr. Mark and Ruth William on the lower terrace of the
Southwick property. Picture taken by F. Earl Williams

⮜ What a treat it is for us to have the Kodachrome photo to the left! It is a picture of Woodward picnicking on the lower terrace with Dr. Mark and Ruth Williams the wife of photography enthusiast F. Earl Williams. What is great about it in this context is that it gives us a partial view of the perspective of this painting.

We added some graphics to point out a building that appears in the picture above (left hand side, mid-level) and the clearing that is in the center of the scene. So where Woodward is sitting, just imagine him turned about 120° clockwise you can see the perspective he painted this painting from. There is an orchard of apple tree just below the retaining wall that creates the terrace.