"Painted prior to 1930. A large early canvas of a theme I painted several times with slight variations and different compositions, tho the only one I made of it in this larger size, 36 x 42. A black turbulent pool of a stream flowing thru dark winter evening woods, curving about a large clump of flesh colored winter beeches in leaf on the snow-drifted bank. (Mr. and Mrs. Robert T Lee of Manchester, Vt., Mrs. Roger Smith of Gardner, etc, own other canvases of the similar theme). Largely exhibited about the country, given a very large rotogravure illustration by the Sunday Boston Herald (see my clipping book) and finally bought by Mrs. Wm. H. Moore to give to her sister, Mrs. Smith of Chicago. Mrs. Smith died around 1940 and the picture was taken and is now owned by her daughter, Mrs. Seller [sic] Bullard of 'Far Horizons' Stow Canyon Rd, Galeta, [sic] California."
There is a lot to say about Woodward's dairy comments. Let's start with
the remark that this painting exhibited "largely... about the country." We have no record of it exhibiting anywhere.
Furthermore, we have established that the Roto-gravure image is in fact, Winter Silence (above), and the
two paintings are different sizes as the artist stated, "the only one I made of it in this larger size, 36 x 42."
It is actually, Winter Silence, that we have record of exhibiting. It even won a prize at the Springfield
Art League's special fall show in 1926 and was favorably reviewed a few times and we have no record of of Winter
Pool ever being mentioned in print.
So what is going on here? How could there be so many mistakes
by Woodward regarding his own work. First, we need to remind you that he did not begin to assemble the Painting Diary
until the 1940s. Second, we believe he was recalling the information correctly and as far as we can tell... he did
not double check himself by going to his old scrapbooks and collection of exhibit programs. This is where he makes
the most errors.
⮝ Still, there is one thing he rarely ever gets wrong and that is who bought the painting. Also, note where he says Mrs. Moore's sister, Mrs. Smith dies in 1940. It is much more recent and fresh in his mind near the time he is writing the diary. He also knows where the painting goes after her passing, to her daughter Sellar Bullard, of Goleta, CA. Sellar's ranch is "Far Horizons" and she is a Board Member Garden Club of Santa Barbara, and served as their President for much of the 1940s. Above you can see a picture of Sellar from the Journal of the Santa Barbara Historical Museum's Noticias publication for the Garden Club of Santa Barbara's Centennial Anniversary (1916-2016) celebration.
⮞ To the right is an illustration showing the differences between the two sibling paintings, Winter Pool
and Winter Silence. Silence is the original painting. It was shown at Woodward's first One-man Show in Boston
at the Lyman Home on Beacon Street. We know that Mrs. Moore did not attend this show, however, she did request to see
another painting from the same show, Road Guardians. The artist states in
that diary entry that Road Guardians was the first painting she bought.
There are not a similar remarks
for Winter Silence or Pool, however, that fact that she did buy Pool indicates that perhaps she saw
Winter Silence and liked it but it had already been promised to another... or she saw Winter Silence
and liked everything put the size and asked the artist to make her one bigger. This is all speculation. We simply
are demonstrating the number of ways this painting, Winter Pool, came to be.
⮟ Below is the Rotogravure page from the December 28, 1930, Boston Herald. You will see the damage it incurred by being glued over two pages of his Scrapbook, yet still, you can clearly see the caption that says "Winter Silence" , below it.