RSW's Diary Comments

None.

Art News, December 01, 1923

The Art News, Dec. 1, 1923. Exhibited at Grand Central Art Galleries in NYC in April, 1944 to January 1947

"In the current exhibition of the National Academy of Design. The brilliancy of autumn is here set down in terms that are positive. Bright reds and greens abound, complemented by a greenish sky shot with rose."

ADDENDUM TO PAST INFORMATION REGARDING THIS PAINTING:

There is no instance more frustrating then when we have conflicting information regarding a painting. The painting above is 30" x 36" in size and was sold at the Vose Galleries in Boston in the month of May 2006. Vose listed it as labeled with the name, "Autumn."

October Pageant, 1944, 24" x 36"

A painting named "Autumn" (30" x 36") first appears in February of 1931 at the Myles Standish Galleries in Boston. Yet, Dr. Mark was pretty confident this painting was really a painting that first appears in 1923 at the National Academy of Design titled "October Pageant." October Pageant is also a 30" x 36" sized painting. The reason we believe Doc felt strongly this painting is the 1923 October Pageant is because there is a picture of the 1923 painting seen in the clipping above. There is also its style, with is tonal and impressionistic, is distinctly from the artist's early 1920s years. By 1931, Woodward has changed his style to a more polished and luminent vibrancy for which the impressionistic brush style is unsuitable. Moreover, the excerpt from the article above accurately describes this painting. Particularly, the reference to rose color in the sky.

Complicating matters more is that another painting titled "October Pageant" was also listed as a 30" x 36" inch painting re-appears 21 years later in a featured yet unnamed New York City exhibition we believe to be held at the Grand Central Art Galleries (G.C.A.G.). Then we have yet another "October Pageant" in the size of a 24 x 36 listed in G.C.A.G.'s 1949 yearbook. But do we? Are there four painting? Or are there two? Maybe just three?

The South Window, 1928
Another 30" x 36" canvas, only as an up-
right. In this painting, one can clearly see
the change in brush style before 1931.

First of all, the size 30" x 36" was very rare early in RSW's career. From 1918 to 1930 there are only 5 known paintings listed at that size and one of them is the 1923 October Pageant. But there is also this interesting fact, the 30" x 36" size is the same aspect ratio as Woodward's most popular size 25" x 30", or a 5:6 aspect ratio, A 6:5 aspect ratio means the width of a rectangle is 6 units for every 5 units of height (or vice versa for 5:6). This also means a 30" x 36" canvas is 30% larger than a 25" x 30" and perhaps it is for that reason he occasionally used the larger size for his preferred aspect ratio.

Still, mistakes were made in the original painting catalog. There are a few wrong sizes in the exhibition records. This would not be a first. The mistakes were often made by the printers of the exhibition programs. But as we locate paintings, and get their measurements, we make the corrections. It is possible some paintings are listed as 30" x 36" size and are really 25" x 30" because there is no way to tell from just a picture. For instance in this very example we have one. The 1944 October Pageant, was listed as a 30 x 36, is in fact a 24 x 36 painting. This has been confirmed. We also have other examples of auctions flat out getting names wrong, or naming a painting themselves.

To answer our above questions, our conclusion is, this this painting is the 1923 October Pageant. There is a 1931 painting titled "Autumn" but we have no image of it, and we do not know where Vose got the name "Autumn." Finally, there is a 1944 painting named October Pageant which is a 24 x 36 inch painting, therefore officially, at this time there are only two paintings with the name October Pageant.