RSW's Diary Comments

• Woodward did not keep records of the pastels he called "chalk drawings," however, we have the black and white picture of this painting because it exhibited and a picture is necessary for the jury to selection process. Still, this is only one of two images we have of a pastel in the artist's sepia print collection.

Editor's Note:

Woodward in his 1923 Studebaker, mid-1920s. The picture
was taken during a visit to the Dressers. That tree looks like it
matches the one in the cottage picture that can be seen below ⮟

The second pastel painting to exhibit from Woodward's 1928 "Late Summer" visit to Mrs. Julia Dresser's summer cottage in Riverton, VT. The barn is the furthermost, in a line of 5 barns, from the house, of the Norton Farm 'down-a-ways' from Mrs. Dresser's place. Mrs. Dresser is the original owner of Silent Evening (c. 1921) and September Mountain (1925). While her family is from Thompson, CT, she grew up in Chicago where her father was well known financier and had interest in numerous shipping and trade businesses including a large wholesale grocery business. We do not know how the two came to know each other but our bet would be Chicago when Woodward was going to school in Peoria, IL. His father, a prominent real estate developer had many connections to people such as Mrs. Dresser's father.

Up In Vermont, 1935

⮜ The day he visited Riverton to paint and visit Mrs. Dresser, Woodward states in his painting diary entry for, Up In Vermont, that he, "made several paintings and chalk drawings of these Norton buildings, and several later paintings from original sketches."

On the Saddleback Barn artwork page we question the numerous irregularities that are associated with these five paintings, four of which were to have been made on the same trip. On the Saddleback Barn page, we examine what it would have taken to do it all in one day. Our presumption is that he did it all in one day because he does not say otherwise. But just because Woodward omits the details of the trip does not mean he did not stay, lets say, the weekend. Although rare, this is a possibility... We argue that just driving alone would consume as much as 6 hours of his day. However, staying the weekend to paint and visit the Dressers makes much more sense. We just do not have any evidence that is what he did.

This is NOT proportionally accurate. The barns to the left of the picture are clearly too large to be correct.
However, it is the small shed and hay pile by the fence that overlap that links the all the barns together.

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Woodward in front of the cottage with
a number of people we cannot name. Mrs.
Dresser is the woman in the white dress.

A picture of the Dresser Cottage, Riverton, VT.
As mention in the picture of RSW in his Studebaker
above, the tree seen to the right of the home is the
same tree. The photo to the left of this one shows
the other side of the cottage not seen in this image.
(The picture above is courtesy of James Sumner.)