Robert Strong Woodward's
125th Anniversary Celebration

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EXHIBITION CELEBRATED THE LANDSCAPE OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS THROUGH THE PAINTINGS OF ROBERT STRONG WOODWARD

Due to the overwhelming response, not everyone was able to walk away with an Exhibit Program. If you, or someone you know, would like one, please contact:moc.liamtoh@yteicoslacirotsihdnalkcub and include your mailing address.

Please click here to view a gallery of photographs from the Exhibition.

On Saturday, September 25 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Buckland (MA) Historical Society featured an exhibition of the paintings of Robert Strong Woodward (1885-1957) at the Buckland Public Hall on Upper Street in the historic village. "Enduring New England: The Western Massachusetts Landscape Paintings of Robert Strong Woodward (1885-1957)" celebrated the 125th anniversary of the artist's birth and featured sixty-six of Woodward's early 20th century paintings of the New England landscape.

Nearly 500 people attended the first public exhibition of Woodward's work in several decades. The $10 admission and proceeds from the sale of notecards and calendars benefits the programs of the Buckland Historical Society. Robert Strong Woodward's paintings chronicle the agricultural landscape of rural western Massachusetts during the first decades of the twentieth century. Through a combination of creative preservation initiatives spearheaded by organizations such as the Franklin and Mount Grace Land Trusts and the Trustees of Reservations, a good portion of the viewscape Woodward captured on canvas is recognizable today.

A paraplegic from his early twenties, Woodward studied briefly at the Museum School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and then settled in Buckland where he painted in a series of studios. The recipient of the Gold Medal of Honor awarded at the Boston Fine Arts Tercentenary in 1930, Woodward's paintings were included in the collections of several well known individuals including the poet Robert Frost; Supreme Court Justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.; and comedians Jack Benny and George Burns.

Woodward embraced the admonition of the impressionist painter Henri Matisse that "an American should learn his métier and work in America," creating an oeuvre of more than 600 oil paintings and chalk drawings of his beloved western Massachusetts. Today, the artist's work is represented in many private and public collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Mount Holyoke College; the Springfield (MA) Museums; Deerfield (MA's) Memorial Hall Museum; the Arkell Museum in Canajohari, New York; and the Yale University Art Gallery. More than fifty years after his death Woodward's paintings continue to bring strong interest at auction.