Quick Reference

Time Period:
1936

Location:
Buckland Center, MA

Medium:
Oil on Canvas

Type:
Landscape

Category:
Trees

Size:
25 x 30

Exhibited:
Vose Galleries, 1936

Purchased:
Mrs. W. H. Wesson

Provenance:
N/A

Noteworthy:

There are two other paintings that go by the same name. There is the 1942 Window Picture Painting, Winter Peace (#2) and a 1931 painting of an unknow subject.


Related Links



Featured Artwork: Winter Peace #1

RSW's Diary Comments


Winter Peace Sepia Print

"Painted ? (1936) A winter rocky slope with the immense old maple (back of Annie Griswold's) topping against a sky of gray winter clouds with light yellow streaks breaking through it. (This grand old maple I've painted several times: Clifford Richmond's autumn canvas, Edith Storer Rhoades autumn canvas, my 36 x 42 At Peace etc). Bought from my exhibition at the Vose Galleries in 1936 by Mrs. W. H. Wesson of 302 Maple Street, Springfield, Mass., for $450. (less 25%= $337.50)"

Editor's Note:

Our exhibition records show three paintings by the same name Winter Peace. One hung at the Myles Standish Gallery, Boston, 1931. Then there is this painting, at Vose in 1936 and finally a Window Picture Painting, at the Salmagundi Club, in 1942. More on this in the next section.


Additional Notes


Woodward's signature from the canvas
Woodward's signature from the canvas

Woodward's reference to Annie Griswold suggest it is the Griswold Place on Upper Street in the Buckland (MA) town center.


We are not sure this is the 1936 painting that hung and sold from Vose. There are a couple of issues we need to address.


At Peace, 1935-'36. One of the "several" paint-
ings of the "grand old maple" referenced by RSW.

The stretcher of this painting doesn not have any markings or labels. Rare for a painting that has exhibited.

The description by the artist does not quite match. This painting has more pinks and purple coloring.

Woodward also does not mention the snow on the ground. Instead he makes it a point to say, "A winter rocky slope..." suggesting to us the rocks are visible like in At Peace, to the right.

A close up of the signature and the texture also gives us pause. We look at a lot of paintings and their images up close. We know them well enough to pick up on the most subtle differences in brush stroke, material, even the age of the paint and the signature feels his late 1920s, early 1930s.


Unnamed: Gathering Time
Another angle of the Griswold maple- the back side.

As mentioned above there is a 1931 painting named Winter Peace that hung at the Myles Standish Gallery in Boston in 1931. The time period feels right, but this still does not explain why there is not a name written on the stretcher which was common for exhibited paintings.

The artist did recycle names as well as subjects quite often. He did paint this maple several times, perhaps more times than he remembers.

This still does not explain the matching sepia print. This is the second sepia print this month (Oct. 2023) that is labeled such and such but does not match elsewhere. This sepia matches the scene but with all the other questions we have to ask if the sepia is correctly labeled?


Ultimately, more information is needed. While most of our points are nuanced, we put the most weight on Woodward mentioning the rocks, yet no rock appearing in the painting. He was either having poor recall of this painting or talking about another painting. The "yellow" light is problematic as well.

For now, we will stick with the image above being the 1936 Winter Peace.