Quick Reference

Time Period:
March of 1943

Location:
Studio

Medium:
Oil on Canvas

Type:
Window Picture

Category:
Window Picture

Size:
24 X 36

Exhibited:
Boston Artist Guild, 1943
Macbeth Galleries (NYC), 1944
James Prendergast Library 1965

Purchased:
Mr. Bartlett Arkell

Provenance:
NA

Noteworthy:

First entry as a member of the Guild of Boston Artists in the members' show of May and June. Sold Nov. 11, 1943, to Mr. Bartlett Arkell through the Macbeth Gallery for the permanent collection. of the Canajoharie, (N. Y.) Art Gallery.

Related Links

RSW's Diary Comments

"March of 1943. The first of a series of successful paintings I made after my terrible static winter of Lena's illness, strange nurses and no maid in the house. My studio desk corner showing Putts Hill through the window, lingering drifts on it. Geraniums in bloom and the sun spot flooding in on my blue blotter. In April ,1943, I was elected a member of the Guild of Boston Artists and this was my first entry as a member in the members' show of May and June. Rich with two atmospheres of outside and in, and brilliant in technique and execution. Sold Nov. 11, 1943, to Mr. Bartlett Arkell through the Macbeth Gallery for the permanent collection. of the Canajoharie, (N. Y.) Art Gallery."



Additional Notes

The studio desk as it appears today

Boston Sunday Post, May 23, 1943

"Robert Strong Woodward, newly elected to the Guild of Boston Artists, strikes the keynote of the colorful spring show by members in the Guild galleries with his handsome large oil painting Desk Corner. It is an unusually interesting combination of colorful interior and outdoor landscape. Sunlight through the small-paned windows patterns the bright blue blotter and brings out the freshness of blossoming pink geranium and other objects. Not only is this corner of a room cleverly and competently painted, but the contrast between indoor and outdoor atmosphere is excellently rendered."


RSW letter to friend F. Earl Williams:

"You will be interested to hear that today I had a letter from Macbeth's saying that for their permanent collection of the Canajoharie Museum of Fine Arts, Mr. Arkell had bought Desk Corner and Keach's Stove--check was enclosed. I shall miss both canvases greatly----Keach's Stove I always considered one of my unsung masterpieces--now it has found its place--and its song."