RSW's Diary Comments

FROM RSW's 1932 PERSONAL DIARY RE: Mount Haystack Over Sadawga

Monday, July 25

Very hot, breezy, brilliant day. Wretchedly ill but went on picnic- Mother, Father, and White sisters to Sadagwa. Found new view up back of Kentfield's Farm. Too ill to eat mouthful all day, but started chalk drawing of Sadawga and Haystack. Home by 7:00. Phoned Mrs. Cowles to come home from vacation.

Article regarding RSW's donation

This drawing was donated by the RSW to the Deerfield Valley Art Association to be auctioned for the hospital fund in 1946. We also know from letters found in the Deerfield Academy's American Studies Group archive that it hung in Wilson's Department Store in Greenfield (MA) for some time. Wilson is mentioned the article to the right as well. To read the full article, simply click on the image.

A closer look at the farm by the lake. The road
seen in the drawing is believed to be Kentfield Road,
Whitingham, VT

A closer look at the title in RSW's hand

In the summer of 1932 Woodward was traveling to the Whitingham, VT area quite often near Lake Sadagwa and Mount Haystack. He first began painting Red Barns and Mountains in Summer in July. On a separate trip to the area, also in July (25th), he drew Mount Haystack Over Sadawga. He would finish both Mountains in Summer and Red Barns in September. In all, he traveled to the Whitingham area at least 8x in 3 months. ALSO NOTE: you can clearly see the sky in the sepia does not match the sky in this painting.

Before we learned of the above diary comment we used the technology of topographical maps offered by Google. Initially, we believe this was drawn from Streeter Hill Road, Whitingham, VT but we now know RSW was right on the farm. We also do not know if Kentfield Road was named as much in 1932 or if it even was a road.

CAPTION FOR PIC

CAPTION FOR PIC

For some perspective, we made this graphic of Mount Haystack Over Sadawga along side Mountains in Summer to demonstrate the crossover between the two pieces and illustrate the differences in perpsective. We do not know what RSW meant by "from the old common." We could not find any reference to a common in Whitingham and so have contacted the Whitingham Historical Society for more information.

On the left is Mount Haystack Over Sadawga and to the right is the oil painting Mountains in Summer
You can see the area of cleared trees in both pieces of work. The arrow represents the approximate location of where RSW painted Mountains in Summer