None.
This beautiful chalk drawing was not listed in our list of Woodward chalk drawings, but it is unquestionably a Woodward and has now been added to the list. It is thought that there is an oil painting of the same scene and with the same name because it is of record that this chalk was originally gifted to the owner of the farm. This was a common practice by the artist after making an oil painting of a farm.
At auction on Dec. 2, 2006, by Adam Weschler & Son, Auctioneers, Washington, DC, this chalk drawing brought a hammer price of $5520. It is now owned locally. After purchase the new owner removed it from the original frame because it was not "set back" from the glass as RSW later did in framing all of his chalk drawings. It is to be reframed with the customary set back. In so doing the date of 1927 was found on the bottom front of the drawing in between the name of the chalk and the signature of RSW.
The image of the drawing (above) was taken at the recent RSW 125th Celebration Exhibit. Reframed, it drew a round of applause from all the volunteers when it arrived to be hung at the exhibit hall. In viewing the high-resolution image (linked), you can clearly see the name, RSW's signature and the date 1927.
The Bridge was always considered one of Woodward's earliest chalk drawings. That is simply not true. Woodward's Chalk Drawings
were right there from the start. His professsional exhibit, 1918, at the Boston Art Club was an oil and a chalk. He enters another
chalk in 1920 to the Boston AC, then another in 1921 at the Stockbridge Public Library, leading us to the 1922, J.H. Miller Gallery
exhibition where he hangs four chalks.
The Bridge was made actually during a time when Woodward actually
made more chalks than oil paintings. It is very rare for Woodward to date a chalk. In fact, we do not know of any other by which had
wrote the year next to his signature. To the left Greylock in Autumn is one of the oldest chalk drawings we have
a picture. Beyond that, pictures get very scarce.