RSW's Diary Comments

"Painted summer of 1948 or '49. A painting very similar to Invitation (which see for almost duplicate description) a view of the beech tree and hills from the Pasture House garage doors, showing garage door open in shadow as a frame. Bought by Clifford A. Richmond about Sept. 1st 1951, and presented to the Easthampton (Mass.) Public Library."

A color photo from inside the
Heath garage which resembles the painting

This painting hangs in the Emily Williston Memorial Library in Easthampton Massachusetts.

Please compare with the painting Invitation. Because the first painting sold so rapidly to an unknown person, this almost identical painting was made to be sold locally. .

The image above was located in a group of color slides found in Woodward's personal items. The slides hold the ONLY color images we have from Woodward's time! The pictures were taken by close friend and amateur photographer F. Earl Williams on one of his visits in the early 1940s. Kodak ChromaColor was relatively new at the time. It was launched in 1935 and was the industry standard well into the 1980s.

We have identified a number of photographs in RSW's personal items that resemble or can be linked to specific paintings in his catalogue leaving us asking what role photography played in creating these paintings. Did he use them as a reference? Or during a bout of poor weather, did he turn to the photos to work on till he could get back out in the open air? For this particular painting... did he pull out the photograph to paint this painting so many years after Invitation?