"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 Bullard of 'Far Horizons' Stow Canyon Rd, Galeta, California."
As Woodward did often in his career when he made a painting he liked very much, he made another
similar painting for one of his benefactors. This is the case with Winter Silence and Winter Pool.
Winter Silence, however, gets the short end of the proverbial stick in Woodward's memory leaving it out of
his painting diary entirely despite the fact that at one point Winter Silence becomes a critical feature of
his promotional material from 1931 to 1935. Actually, because of this we can argue it is his MOST referred to artwork
in print with an astounding eleven articles linked to and mentioning the painting without it even hanging at the
exhibit the article was written!
We attribute this discrepancy to what we believe was Woodward's
disappointment with the Silence painting not selling for many years after being included in two of the artist biggest
shows of the 1920s (Lyman '26 and Myles '29). Winter Pool gets remembered for being bought by his patron-saint
Mrs. Moore... and Winter Silence gets ignored and although the two appear to be similar, if not the same, they
are not. Their perspectives are very different (see to the left).
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"Winter Silence indeed prevails in the extraordinary canvas by that name; the silence of a cold clear winter's evening when beauty is so keen that it is almost melancholy. here again we find a deep slowly flowing brook, upon whose snow-ladened bank majestic trees grow in profusion."
⮟ Before the Lyman-Longfellow exhibit in Dec-ember of 1926 this painting hung at the annual Fall "special" exhibit of the Springfield Art League...
"The place of honor in the main gallery is occupied by Robert Strong Woodward?s vigorous painting Winter Silence an excellent example of the crisp vivid work which is winning this artist increasing attention."
⮝ There is some confusion, however, in regard to whether "Winter Silence won a prize. We believe it did because right after noting Woodward's honor the names S. M. Rosenberg, "The prize for the best painting by an artist under 35 years old..." Also we have several examples that the "place of honor" comes with a one hundred dollar price from other years. This exhibition is different than the annual spring show where we know the first prize is worth $400.
⮜ Woodward's career gets super hot after winning one-of-only-four gold medals at Boston's 1930 Ter-centennial (300th) Birthday Celebration Exhibition. It would lead to his first and only One-Man show at Smith College's Tyron Art Gallery. His Boston art dealer is the Myles Standish Gallery in Kenmore Square. Six months after the gold medal, the artist, had fifty-nine paintings rotating through 3 exhibits from February to the end of March.
⮝ This quote above will be picked up by news services like AP or UPI and it will appear in as many as seven articles after, along with several other facts about Woodward that we believe is some sort of "Press Kit." A press kit is an information packet provide to area newspapers for them to fill out background information. It tells us that an appearance in the Boston Herald's Rotogravure section is a BIG deal to the artist but it is the caption that is the real star. Woodward must have liked the quote as he started to lead the narrative about his work as he climbs up in stature on the national art scene. What is absolutely crazy is that "Winter Silence did NOT appear at Myles in 1931, or Tryon, for that matter, and it actually never appeared at an exhibit again!
".....and recently a Boston paper gave half of a rotogravure page to the reproduction of his Winter Silence, calling it 'typical of the characterful works of Mr. Woodward.'"
"Winter Silence is characteristic: it shows a frozen pool in the heart of a dense woods. The darkness of the forest is contrasted with the feathery plumes of the snow-covered branches."