Quick Reference

Time Period:
c. 1924

Location:
Behind the Redgate Studio

Medium:
Oil on Canvas

Type:
Landscape

Category:
Brooks, Ponds, Rivers

Size:
30" x 36"

Exhibited:
Springfield Art league, 1926
    > Award: Top Honor, Fall Show
Home of Ronald T. Lyman, 1926
Myles Standish, May 1929

Purchased:
Unknown

Provenance:
N/A

Noteworthy:

Despite being ignored by Wood-ward in his painting diary, this painting was used promotionally in the artist press kit after it was featured in the Boston Herald's Rotogravure section of the Sunday edition Dec. 28, 1930.

It is also worth noting that this painting won top prize at the Spr-ingfield Art League's lesser "special exhibition" the month before it hung in Boston.


Related Links

Featured Artwork: Winter Silence

Winter Silence
The image above is a combination of two clipping, one missing the its bottom eighth and the other torn and frayed.

Click here for a high resolution image of painting

RSW's Diary Comments


Diary entry for Winter Pool:

"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."

An illustration of the differences
An illustration of the differences between Pool
and Silence... we lined up the two paintings using the
central snow covered stone and lowered the opacity of
Silence over the larger and squarer Pool so you can
see through it. It is really remarkable just how close
the two paintings are! The image looks just a little
blurry. All of the center trees in the distance line
up, except the two on the right. The real difference be-
tween the two are the top and sides. There is simply
more painting to Pool than Silence. Six inches in
height and six in width. It is remarkable...

Editor's Note:

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).


Additional Notes


What changed the fortunes of Winter Silence? This feature in the Boston Herald's Rotogravure Section

On December 28, 1930, just after Christmas and before New Year's Day this
painting appears in the Sunday Edition of the Boston Herald's special Rotogravure
Print insert. This clipping was found in Woodward's first early scrapbook of articles
he kept between 1920 and 1930. Note its terrible condition. Woodward could not fit it
on one page so he pasted it over two pages and over time it chipped away at the separated middle portion of the im-
age. What happed when Dr. Mark was putting together material to start the website he saw its square shape and at-
tributed the image to Winter Pool, believing the newspaper got its name wrong. We think Woodward might have done
the SAME thing which is maybe why he forgot about it for his painting diary! The newspaper did NOT get it wrong. We
found another, better preserved clipping of the Rotogravure in a pile of extra clippings that were not scrapbooked and
this is where we got the correct image above showing its rectangular 30" x 36" perspective. What a journey this has
been! What we would love to know is -- what or who prompted the Herald to feature this 6 year old painting that had
not exhibited, that we know of, in over a year (Myles Standish, May, 1929) for their highly regarded art section? Bet-
ter yet, what then prompted Woodward to wrap his arms around it and use its caption for his Press Kit thereafter?

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The Boston Post, Dec. 9, 1926
The Boston Post, Dec. 9, 1926

⮜ Boston Post, Thursday, Dec. 9, 1926

"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 Springfield Union Nov. 11, 1927
The Springfield Union Nov. 11, 1926

Springfield Union Nov. 11, 1926    ⮞

"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."


The Cover Page for the 1931 Smith College event
The Cover Page for the 1931 Myles Standish Gallery
event. What you are seeing is abbreviated. To see the
full cover simply enlarge the image by clicking on it.

A quote from the Springfield Union, Apr. 22, 1931 in re-
gard to the exhibit at Smith College's Tyron Art Gallery.

"...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.'"

⮝ 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!


The Rotogravure caption for Winter Silence
The Rotogravure caption for Winter Silence

Springfield Union and Republican, Sunday, April 26, 1931

".....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.'"


The Breeze, June 5, 1931

"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."