...protege of many years, Dr. Mark Purinton, well-known throughout Franklin County. Soon after becoming established at the Buckland Center property Woodward purchased several acres of pasture land on Burnt Hill in Heath and on it built a small studio just above the famous beech tree which he painted in so many seasons and moods. A few years later this building also burned to the ground. The cause was never determined. He never rebuilt the studio. It was the third heart-breaking loss by fire in his lifetime.

Robert Strong Woodward became widely acclaimed in the Northeast. Museums began to acquire his pictures and in 1920 he was invited to the Carnegie Show in Pittsburgh. In 1930 he received the Gold-Medal of Honor at the Boston Tercentenary Art Exhibit, and two years later he won the Boston Art Club prize. Other awards came his way during this period and gave him a place in the art world that few painters in New England possessed.

Woodward enjoyed his neighbors and met with them, talking about the subjects that interest them and him. Often he painted pictures of their homes and left the paintings with them for a short time so that they could enjoy them. Because of the difficulty he had in moving, the artist seldom met with other artist, and his relationships were closest with those people who came to see him. His nurses and the men who carried him became important people in his life, and they still speak of him in the fondest terms, admiring not only his work but the way in which he overcame personal difficulties to produce paintings that were always pleasant to live with.

[IMAGE, top of page]: Picture of Hiram Woodward's Place from its west side

[IMAGE CAPTION]: Second studio at the Hiram Woodward Place

[IMAGE, lower right]: Two men sitting in a doorway

[IMAGE CAPTION]: Two of Woodward's neighbors