RSW's Diary Comments

Woodward did not include chalk drawings in his Painting Diaries...

SVAA 1937 Program Heading

Despite its title... we believe this was actually painted from Pownel, VT just southwest of Manchester, VT. Given the angle and persective, RSW is facing north (his favorite sky to paint) and from a terrain map the flattest suface and road from which to park himself is somewhere near Route 7 Pownel, perhaps on S. Stream Road.

This recently located (2019) chalk drawing of a cow pasture with Mount Equinox in the distance exhibited at the 1937 Southern Vermont Artist Association's Annual Exhibition. It is the only recorded exhibition and was purchased by Adaline Havemeyer Frelinghuysen.

Mrs. Frelinghuysen is by far RSW's best customer. We now know of 18 paintings she has purchased over his career and there may be more! It seems like every year we discover a couple of new paintings bought by Adaline. Part of the problem identifying them all is that she was partial to pastels and RSW did not keep a record of his chalks.

Taking pictures of chalks are very difficult because they are mounted under glass as you can see by the reflection. We will work on getting a better image and more detail on this piece.