RSW's Diary Comments

None.

There is no instance more frustrating then when we have conflicting information regarding a painting. The painting to the right is 30" x 30" in size and was sold at the Vose Galleries in Boston in the month of May 2006. Vose listed it as labeled with the name, "Autumn."

October Pageant, 1923, 30" x 30"
Incorrectly listed as "Autumn" by the Vose Gallery

A painting named "Autumn" (30 x 36) first appears in 1931 at the Myles Standish Galleries in February of 1931. Yet, Dr. Mark was pretty confident the painting of this page was really a painting that first appears in 1923 at the National Academy of Design titled "October Pageant." October Pageant, however, is also a 30" x 36" sized painting. The reason we believe Doc felt strongly this painting is the 1923 October Pageant is its style, tonal and impressionistic, is distinctly early 1920s. By 1931, Woodward has changed his style to a more polished and luminant vibrancy for which the impressionistic style is unsuitable.


In the end, the clincher was an excerpt from an article in Art News Magazine giving a detailed description of the 1923 painting "October Pageant."

The Art News, Dec. 1, 1923.

"In the current exhibition of the National Academy of Design. The brilliancy of autumn is here set down in terms that are positive. Bright reds and greens abound, complemented by a greenish sky shot with rose."

The description matches perfectly with the painting sold by Vose in 2006 incorrectly listed as "Autumn." The 1931 Autumn painting's whereabouts are still unknown and we have no image of the painting. There is no explanation for why a painting listed as a 30 x 36 in three sources is now 30 x 30 unless it was cut down by either the owner or Woodward.