Featured Artwork: Good Sailing: Oyster Harbors

Screen Capture of Oyster Harbors

Helen Patch and her husband were long time close friends of Woodward. Her recollections of RSW are both intimate and insightful. We learned so much having discovered them sitting in the 1970 Deerfield Academy's American Studies Group Archive in the school's Boyden Library.

Our initial search for "Oyster Harbors" years ago did not really produce good results. There are a number of oyster harbors and bays, etc. The discovery of the Patch letters gave us enough context to look more closely. After confirming, through the Mass Land Records website that the Patch's did in fact have a place in Barnstable, MA, in the village of Oysterville, then we were able to connect this painting to their home there. Up until her letters, we had no idea RSW ever visited the Cape, not to mention her specific mention of him drawing a couple of "crayon drawings" (while RSW called pastels chalks, other called them crayons despite being inaccurate. Crayons are a separate medium entirely).

This is a wonderful discovery because as Mrs. Patch points out, he was 'Mr. New England' without its iconic rocky coast or ocean. Oddly enough, another uncharacteristic chalk, On the Waterfront is also of a sail boat only it is docked in the Boston Harbor. We imagine that one of those drawings went to the Patches as a gift for their hospitality, though she makes no mention of this.

While Woodward had little interest in the over-painted coastline of New England, there is a story of a coastal, seascape artist coming to his neck of the woods to paint causing a bit of a riff between the two friends because of what this artist painted. Read the story by visiting the link below.