"Painted 1944-45. A brilliant autumn canvas, composed in the studio from elements of different previous canvases of mine, a purplish Oct. mountain with shafts of sunlight on it. The background (taken from Just After Haying Time) --a stonewalled roadway running out of the foreground to drop into middle distance (taken from Wind'll Blow Hill canvas) with mass of autumn trees at the left. Made for tentative clients of Vose Galleries but not bought by them when offered for inspection. Soon purchased, however, from the studio by Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Billings of Hatfield, Mass. At the time made several variations in size composition etc. of the same general theme."
"Painted about 1944-5. Several paintings similar to this I made in the studio the winter of 1944 '5. The description under Through October Hills (which see) applies to this picture too, although the composition is somewhat different with the stone wall in Through October Hills, for instance, much more prominent. Sold Dec. '53 to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Abbott of Braintree, Mass."
We underline Woodward's remarks concerning this painting from the third version of this scene, New England in October, to stress the point that differs this painting, the second one made, has a more pronounced stone wall.
At some time or another these details were either overlooked or mixed up and we incorrectly labelled the color image, New England in October (left), as this painting for years! We had the owner of the third painting measure it confirming it is not the size (22" x 38") Woodward claimed is the size of the painting above. See the illustration below for additional information.
It makes no sense that it took Woodward (according to his diary comments) almost two years to make the second and third paintings. He even got the first painting's year wrong. He had a potential customer waiting for her specified dimensions and perspective. There is no way she waited two years for the painting or that the artist would make her wait that long. In fact, we doubt it took him more than a couple months to make the second painting which would date it in 1943. The years/dates of the paintings are the most inaccurate information given in his painting diaries. The exhibition list is far more reliable.
Woodward does not say where he got the stonewall to the right of the road or the group of trees to the left and note that for the other two paintings. The tree group is more pronounced than the original In October Hills (1943).
For this painting and the third, the left side of the road is far less than the original scene from Wind'll Blow Hill meaning that the only part of the Conway painting to remain is the road and its giant rock.