Robert Strong Woodward's Apples
A quote from a letter Woodward sent to the new owner of the painting,
When Apples Are Ripe,
"Cézanne never painted better apples than
are in that canvas of mine..."
Winter Window, 1937
Apples appear in one form or another in 30
known Still Life and Window Picture paintings
from 1924 through 1951, which is about half
of those types of canvases.
The painting above is the second canvas made
from the Southwick studio, only it is NOT in-
side the studio but rather from the supply room
in the carriage house adjacent to the studio
looking east at the artists' north window corner.
"THE NOBLEST OF FRUITS..." (David Henry Thoreau)
The [Woodward] quote above is from a letter by RSW to the owner of his painting When Apples Are Ripe. Please CLICK on the titles in red beneath the thumbnails to see images of the entire paintings. Would you not agree that RSW's apples, (with the natural waxy appearance over the realistic red and yellow variegated colors) are far and away superior to the print-like "appearance" of those painted by Paul Cézanne?
Below you will see a number of paintings which include apples. Click on each thumbnail to see the entire painting of which they are but a part. At the end of your review you will be the judge as to whether RSW painted apples better than Paul Cézanne!
The Apples from When Apples are Ripe
Cézanne's apples from Pommes et Oranges
Robert Strong Woodward always had a bowl of Northern Spy apples on the little table before the fireplace at Christmas time. We have carried on that tradition over the years, as seen in the images below of the interior of the Southwick Studio taken in December of 2012.
Another view of the apples at the Southwick
Studio during Christmas season 2012
Bowl of Northern Spy Apples in front of the large
fireplace at the Southwick Studio during
MLP
2014
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Full Bloom, c. 1930
One of sixteen known apple trees in bloom, Eleven of
which have a tree in bloom in the center of the painting.
PART TWO: 2025 by Brian C. Miller
"If you're not hungry enough to eat an apple, you're not hungry." (Author / Professor: Micheal Pollan)
Woodward did not just feature apples in more than half of what we call his Window Picture Paintings,
but add the window picture paintings where an apple does not appear in the painting but a tree does and that
number goes up to two-thirds of all the known window picture paintings! This prompted us to search out every
apple tree we could find that appears on a canvas and we now have the seventh largest theme gallery on the
website behind snow, stones, fences and gates, etc.
This was shocking enough, but even more so was how
many paintings there are where there is an apple tree dead center in the scene... overlooked or unnoticed,
(image below) that is except when the tree is in full bloom (upper left). But apple trees metaphorically have
two blooms, the flower, then the fruit, and there are far less of ripe apples hanging from the tree than there
are bare trees of late fall and winter his most common subjects.
The Old House and The Young Tree, c. 1930
One of RSW's "favorite canvases." It features a young apple
tree rising out of rugged ground, separate from the unkept
apple grove. He saw "hope" in the scene, in the sense that,
here was life rising out of the ashes of death like a "Phoenix."
It was inspirational to him, despite the gloomy scene.
Actually, the gloom adds to the drama of it. Boston art critic
A.J. Philpott got it. He said of the painting, "And there is no
more vivid and luminous landscape in the exhibition than Mr.
Woodward's The Old House and the Young Tree. That is a gem."
The Boston Globe, January 3, 1930
It is not like apple trees in New England can be avoided, especially in a farming community like
Buckland and its surrounding area. Still, the second largest section of our
Apples Gallery, after Window Picture paintings, is not apple
trees in bloom with flower or fruit, but rather leaf-less and bare. Fourteen of the twenty-three landscape
paintings where an apple tree appears are bare trees. Nine of those, the tree is either dead center in the canvas
or center-adjacent. There are sixteen apple trees in bloom in the Apples
Gallery, however, three of them are copies of one canvas an owner commissioned for her three sisters.
There may be an explanation for there not being more apple trees in the spring bloom. In general, the Spring
season has the fewest paintings because it is the most difficult season for the artist to travel by car. The
Spring thaw washes out or floods many roads making them impassable. We learned this from reading Woodward's
personal diaries we have available to us. It is a problem finding new, fresh, not previously printed paintings
for the annual calendar we produce every year for the Buckland Historical Society.
The painting, The Old House and The Young Tree
to the upper left, is perhaps the most telling of all his paintings of apple trees. It is apparently an abandon
farm, with a neglected apple grove and uninhabitable old house that is falling apart. Both the home and apple
tree are central to its message and share the center space on the canvas. For those of you that do not know,
Woodward studied Buddhism and Hinduism. He had a special appreciation for their philosophies. The East is
different from the West is this dramatic way, two things can be true, as well as, share the same space. The
message of both subjects sharing the same space reflects this idea and it is more literally, life and death
linked together and not separate. Woodward especially disliked Aristotle's exclusionary premises, every
proposition must be either true or false, not both and not neither. So the house and tree have a yin and yang
relation, life and death side by side, two sides of the same coin.
"Say 'even in November' to Mr. Woodward, and he will expostulate. He loves November as it touches his hills, and thinks it is a much-abused month, for it brings many a scene which invites the artist's eye as forcefully by its very wistfulness..." Boston Evening Post, Dec. 18, 1920, by Margaret C. Getchell
734WM.png?url=../Gallery/photos/country_piazza(2011)734WM.png)
Country Piazza, c. 1929 A.J. Philpott said of this paint-
ing: "Nothing has ever been painted with any more of loving
care than Country Piazza by Robert Strong Woodward. That
is a winter scene par excellence." Again, here, the artist
plays with metaphors pairing both the literal and metaphor-
ical meanings of Piazza both as a gathering place, and the
technical term used to describe the dynamic gothic porch.
This painting was personally invited by the curator of the
1933 Chicago World's Fair to hang along side America's best.
Adding to its power is it is also a "November" painting. He says as much in its painting diary entry. He wasted no time sending it to Boston for an exhibit at the Boston Art Club in the inaugural exhibit of the New England Society of Contemporary Art in January. That is a quick turnaround considering that in most cases it is best to wait a couple weeks for the oil paint to completely set. He also sends perhaps one of his most editorial and celebrated canvases, Country Piazza. The event must have been important to him. For some additional context, it is just weeks after Black Tuesday, the stock market crash that triggered the Great Depression.
November is an important month to the artist because he finds its coloring most interesting but there is more to that than meets the eye. Poetically, November symbolizes the period of 'retirement' or the repose (pause or rest) before the end or death. But it also holds powerful meaning of linking two much celebrated holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Christmas, of course, celebrates the birth of Jesus and Thanksgiving the harvest one has yielded over the year. Those two holidays are aptly connected to lead up to and coincide with the winter solstice. Life begins in winter, not spring.
Winter is the pregnancy to spring's birth. Furthermore, there is no greater bringer of peace than gratitude. To be grateful is to nourish yourself with appreciation and acceptance. It is a joyful time. There is no doubt November is important to the artist. Yet still, it is also the month he got out of the hospital after his accident. It is the month he was forced to leave the Museum of Fine Art School due to illness... If you break Woodward's life into months, he died at 72 years old, he retired at 66, the figurative beginning of his personal November. There is no saying how much of Woodward's interest is consciously directed versus subconsciously led. He is fairly self aware. However, we all have hidden drives that lead us along a path unknown to us and perhaps his interest in November is a healing process for his soul.
Thanksgiving to Mark, crayon gift, c. 1945
One of only two landscape paintings with apples still on the
tree, but still clearly in late autumn, if not November.
"Time ripens the substance of a life as the seasons mellow and perfect its fruits. The best apples fall latest and keep longest." ( Educator/Reformist, Amos Bronson Alcott)
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Back of the Village, c. 1935
The other landscape with apples still on the branches. While
not centered in the canvas, its reach bleeds into the center
hiding part of the barn which is dead center but the real
objective of this composition is foreshortening that leads you
to the distant hills and depth of sky with streaking clouds.
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For the interior paintings mentioned above see: A Country Interior, 1928, Country Sitting Room, 1928, The Tufts' Living Room, 1928, The Friendly Fireplace, 1928, and Keach's Stove, 1931. Or VISIT the Still Life & Interiors Gallery
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