Quick Reference

Time Period:
Painted 1925.

Location:
Hiram Woodward Studio

Medium:
Oil on Canvas

Type:
Landscape

Category:
Window Picture

Size:
25 x 30


Purchased:
Mr. John T. Spaulding

Provenance:
NA

Noteworthy:

Given by John T. Spaulding in 1948 to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass.

Related Links



Featured Artwork: The Window: Still Life and a Winter Scene

The Window: Still Life and a Winter Scene
Photo credit: courtesy of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Click here for a high resolution image of painting image

RSW's Diary Comments

The Window: A Still Life and Winter Scene</em> Sepia
The Window: A Still Life and Winter Scene Sepia

The following comments are tributed to My Winter Self, however, the editors believe is really attributed to The Window: Still Life and a Winter Scene

"Painted about 1925. A painting made in my early career of the long west window shelf of my Old Studio (which was burnt). Bought by Mr. John T. Spaulding of 99 Beacon St., Boston, I think from the exhibition I had in the Ball Room of Mrs. Ronald T Lyman's house on Beacon St., Boston, in 1926 altho I am not certain of this place of purchase."


Notes: (Added in the sidelines of the original diary)

"Now owned by Boston Museum of Fine Arts in famous Spaulding Collection."


Note - The editors now conclude to be a mistake because the Museum of Fine Arts records the painting in their collection as being a 25 x 30 which matches the size of The Window: Still Life and a Winter Scene



Additional Notes

the red lantern
Red lantern is still in
the artist's studio.

Painted c 1925. Purchased by John T. Spaulding, given in 1948 to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass and where remains to the present day.


The Window: Still Life and a Winter Scene and My Winter Shelf are forever intertwined in part because of their similarities in composition but also RSW mixing the two in his diary comments. What's more is that both paintings were purchased by renown collectors, Mr. Spaulding and Mrs. Everett respectively. However, unlike other "copies" Woodward had done these two have notable differences and they are as follows:


Size - The Window: Still Life and a Winter Scene is 25 x 30 inches and My Winter Shelf is 30 x 36.

Buyers - The Window: Still Life and a Winter Scene was bought by John Spaudling and gifted to Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA. My Winter Shelf was purchased by Mrs. Henry Everett (see her Scrapbook story).

Content - My Winter Shelf has a man shoveling snow outside the window, the candle and statue of a man and woman sitting. The Window: Still Life and a Winter Scene has the glass medallion and the water pitcher. Both painting contain the red lantern shown to the left


John Spaulding
John Spaulding

Boston Globe, June 1, 1929 by A. J. Philpott

"That a really fine artist is usually a very modest person is proven anew in the exhibition of paintings by Robert Strong Woodward in the Myles Standish galleries, near Kenmore Station. For it is the kind of exhibition that might have been hung in one of the galleries of the Museum of Fine Art...

[referring to The Window] ...That snow scene outdoors is well-done and the color on that shelf makes a splendid contrast. It must be some picture or John Spaulding wouldn't have purchased it for his collection."


John Spaulding, along with his brother William, were from a prominent Boston family. Although not much is known about either man their legacy as art collectors in the early decades of the twentieth century is without question. It was thanks to them that the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, acquired some of its most enduring masterworks: major European paintings by Goya, Cezanne, van Gogh, Matisse and many others; oils, watercolors and drawings by American masters such as Hopper, Kent and Homer; a remarkable archive of World War I propaganda posters; not to mention its world-renowned collection of Japanese prints. To see Spaulding's Collection at the MFA, CLICK HERE


Additional Notes: Articles

1926 Springfield Republican article
Boston Globe Article

The two images (left and above) both incorrectly cite that famed art collectorJohn Spaulding purchased My Winter Shelf from the 1926, Lyman Exhibition in Boston. This however is incorrect, the website has established that Mr. Spaulding in fact bought The Window: Still Life and a Winter Scene.



Below is a side by side comparison with the main differences highlighted in red.


John Spaulding
On the left (above) is The Window: Still Life and a Winter Scene and to the right is My Winter Shelf