RSW's Diary Comments

"Painted in 1951. Bought summer of 1953 by Miss Mabel Raguse of Shelburne Falls, Mass."

Buckland school teacher Miss Mabel
Raguse in her apartment in Shelburne Falls,
MA beneath the chalk drawing From a May Hill

This painting was purchased from Miss Raguse, a local school teacher, when she closed her apartment to enter a nursing home. It was the last window painting made by the artist before his retirement.

Buckland school teacher Miss Mabel Raguse purchased 2 oil paintings and 3 chalk drawings over her life time. This is quite a feat on a teacher's salary. Safe estimates of what it cost her are anywhere from $25,000 to $27,000 in today's dollars. We do not how much her wages were in that time yet it is safe to say what she spent on paintings by Woodward probably totaled around a quarter of a year's salary.

♦ For some perspective as to where Miss Raguse ranks as a customer of Woodward's... she is near the top. While Woodward has had many renown and prominent people buy his work, Miss Raguse had the least resources. This held a very special place in Woodward's heart because she exemplified what he had always hoped - that regular people can own fine art if it were affordable. This is one of the main reasons Woodward's did not raise the prices of his chalks over the decades of his career. (Actually the chalks pre-date his professional career. He made them and used chalk to create his Illuminations as a commercial artist.) She may have been his "personal" favorite which is why he made her a special gift.