RSW's Diary Comments

From a New England Pasture, 1931

Diary Comment on From a New England Pasture:

"Painted in 1932. One of the earlier ones of the beech tree in the Heath Pasture bought by the graduating class of 1935 at Amherst Massachusetts State College and presented to the college where it hangs in the new library building."

This painting is related to From a New England Pasture (right) and is most likely made from the earlier painting. A majority of the painting is near exact as the sepia print above. There appears to be slight differences in the clouds of the sky but the poor quality of the sepia print does not help us in this instance.

As usual, the Beech Tree is just off center in the painting but Woodward's position to paint it is unique. He positioned himself to the southwest facing the northeast. Woodward tried several times to capture the Beech Tree from the south with little to no success. We believe that part of the reason is that it loses what made it so special to the artist -- the split in its center and sweeping wind-swept look from the brutal southernly winds.

This painting did exhibit at Amherst College's Jones Library in January of 1934 making the year it was made most likely 1933. As Woodward points out above in his diary comments for From a New England Pasture, these paintings are the earliest of his Beech Tree paintings. Woodward does not buy the land (with two oil paintings) until 1938. His "pasture house" is not finished until 1940 and will burn in 1950. Most of the known Beech Tree paintings and other Burnt Hill pasture paintings are from the 1940s.