None.
This painting of the Heath Pasture Beech Tree for a number of years was stored in the Southwick Studio frame room and labeled as "unfinished"
and it was not named.
When Mark Purinton married his wife Barbara and the two moved to Boston for Mark to begin medical school in
August of 1950, RSW brought this painting with him on a visit to Boston as a house-warming gift for their Newbury Street apartment. Mark had to carry
RSW up four flights of stairs to the apartment to oversee that it was hung properly.
It was at the time it was given, unsigned. Mark did not
understand at the time that Woodward did not sign artwork he gave as gifts. Woodward did finish the painting before giving it and it is a beautiful
painting. Mark, not understanding RSW's policy of not signing gifts asked his mentor to sign the painting and Woodward obliged only to go so far as to
sign the painting, "Robert S. Woodward."
The painting stayed with the newlyweds throughout Mark's medical school days, traveling with the couple to Connecticut where Mark had his residency,
ultimately returning to the Souhtwick Place after Woodward left the property to the man he considered a son. It remains in the family as a treasured gift and
memory of Woodward's love for Mark and Barbara.
This gift is quite a sentimental gift by Woodward. His beloved Beech Tree that sat in an open
pasture, high in Heath, MA, was his retreat. Over the years, it became special for another reason and that was the time Mark would drive Woodward up to the
Heath Pasture Studio and the two would spend their time camping under the stars. One of Woodward's favorite pastimes...