RSW's Diary Comments

"A studio window picture of the two south windows, (made from the fireplace hearth) bought in June 1944 by Miss Esther Garbose, 164 Laurence St., Gardner, Mass. on her visit here with the Williams on the 17th before I had a chance to exhibit it at all or have it photographed."

April Sun and Frost on the Window hanging
in the home of Roger Smith for a private exhibition

To the right: is a photograph of April Sun, along with Frost on the Window hanging on the wall for a private exhibition in the home of Mr. & Mrs. Roger Smith of Gardner, MA, December, 1944. The picture was taken by Woodward friend, educator and amateur photographer F. Earl Williams. Williams was once the principal of Gardner High School and so we believe he had something to do with arranging this rare exhibition of Woodward's paintings in a private residence. The three missing photographs are New England Impressions*, Winter Farms, and From the North Window*. The paintings photographed are as follows in pairs: April Sun, and Frost on the Window, Portrait of a Shadow and From a Mountain Farm*, A Winter Song* and The Big Chimney*, there is the chalk drawing The Road Home, the oil A Winter Afternoon and other chalk Mountain Meadow together and then Tranquility, and The Little Red Barn* as singles..

And what an exhibition! Worthy of any New York or Boston Gallery, it featured a number of Woodward's most exhibited editorial paintings going back as far as 1935. [noted by asterisk*] Two of the paintings hanging at the exhibit, A Winter Song and New England Impression previously hung at the 1939 Golden Gate Exposition in San Francisco and the 1939 New York World's Fair respectively.

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This painting popped up at a New England gallery in 2012 and was mistakenly titled "Through the Window."

For a terrific recollection of April Sun, the studio, and Woodward READ THIS

See also June Sun for a related piece of work.

For more photographs by F. Earl Williams