RSW's Diary Comments

“Painted from an earlier chalk drawing in the studio in 1940. Made from one of my first chalk drawings or crayons of a barn over on a back road between West Chesterfield and Worthington, beyond Connie Jarvis’ farm. The drawing was bought by Mrs. Henry Everett of Pasadena, prior to 1930. At her death I had it bought for me at the auction of her possessions which were not mentioned in her will. When it came back to me I was so pleased with composition and theme that I painted from it the above canvas.”

Comments on the back of a sepia print:

“Barn pale sunlit gray. Faded pink-red door. Sky brilliant blue with white cloud. Foreground neutral greens with stretch of blue distant hills and pink plowed field. Suggestive of a Robert Frost poem! (Incidentally, Robert Frost owns one of my paintings).”

The original sepia print.

A close up of the Rooster.

A close up of RSW's signature

At the end of 2010 I was fortunate to receive from a decendent of Emmett Naylor a snap shot of a painting he owned for many years and which hung on his living room wall. He remembered that the painting sold at a Chicago auction many years ago.

Sold at auction on E-bay for $5,000 plus buyers commission of 15% and mailing on 9/10/07

Original chalk from which this was made: The Proud Rooster

From the Woodward painting history it is probably this painting (Passing a Barn at Noon) was purchased by a well known art collector of the time Mrs. Henry Everett.

To view a clipping of a critique from the Christian Science Monitor Click Here

Below is a closer view of the barn door and farm equipment.

Click here for a high resolution image of painting