RSW's Diary Comments

"Painted in winter 1942. A repainting made in the studio from an old canvas of the same size. The old one I destroyed. The brook is the Apple Valley Brook, near the first bridge at the foot of the road in Ashfield."

Comments on the back of a sepia print:

"Painted in early spring before direct greens come to the woods. Colors surrounding brook are neutral dull greens, violets, and pinks. Water very iridescent, sparkling, moving. A lively canvas, but very peaceful and livable. Almost no direct green in this."

1922 Newpaper clipping of RSW

The 1922 clipping to the right was once thought to be the painting The Brook, however, a note in RSW's handwriting puts that painting location at "Clock Hollow" in Buckland, whereas this painting is in Ashfield.

Although we can't get a better image of the clipping, our side-by-side comparison below shows enough evidence to believe this may well be the original painting RSW refers to in his dairy comments.

Side by side comparision of Rushing Brook with painting in clipping

This is the third painting we have learned that Woodward "repainted" from an earlier version in the 1940's. The other two are, Evening Mists and The Farmyard.