About Our Site

This website is a work in progress. I started it in 2002 as a way to catalog, document and preserve information about the life and work of Robert Strong Woodward.  The original design and creation of the web site was due to the expertise and interest of a young computer expert, Daniel Field of Buckland, MA.  Now that the hard work has been completed, the maintenance of the site has been taken over by my son, Larch Purinton.  There are many things in the works as we update the site.  We are constantly searching for new color images of RSW's paintings and chalk drawings.  If you own, or know of the location of any Woodward artwork, please send us an e-mail.  This is especially important if you notice that we do not have good documentation of the work.  If the artwork is in the New England area, perhaps we could arrange a visit.  We plan to monitor the auction galleries to include current works which come up for auction, and also to record the hammer prices following their sale. 

Robert Strong Woodward kept fairly good documentation including a diary of his artwork and a scrapbook of newspaper and magazine clippings.  Many of the clippings are becoming yellowed and torn with the passage of time.  We will digitally scan and display these clippings here on this web site not only to make them available to the general public but also to preserve them for the future.

Robert Strong Woodward paintings are no longer being sold, although occasionally a painting or chalk drawing comes up for auction when estates are settled. His paintings originally sold during the late 1930’s, the 1940’s and the early 1950’s.   Most of the original purchasers are now deceased, which is why I feel free to not eliminate their names from the quotations from the RSW diary comments on this website. The majority of the oil paintings were well documented in the RSW diaries except for many of those in the early 1930’s and earlier. I have also studied his comprehensive scrapbooks for comments made by art critics of the day, and included them with the descriptions of his paintings and chalk drawings.

Fortunately, many of his oil paintings were photographed by a local photographer, “Bert” Ashworth of Shelburne Falls. When color pictures are not available, these are sepia-tone photographs are used on the website.  We are trying to replace these prints with digital color images as we are able to obtain them.  If you have inherited any of these works of art from their original owners, or have purchased them at auction, I would very much appreciate obtaining color images of them for inclusion on this site. I will be glad to reimburse you for any expenses involved. Your name as owner would never be published on the site.

Unfortunately, the many chalk drawings were not well documented. None were photographed for his records as were the oil paintings.  Many were given away to farmers whose barns he had captured as an oil painting.

We hope you enjoy this website and will return to visit us frequently.

Thank you for your visit.

MLP