RSW's Diary Comments

"Painted in 1939. The Beech Tree with ledges under a perfect gray sky made from outside of open shed in Heath pasture before we began to build the Pasture House! One of my most perfect paintings of the scene. Sent to the Manchester, Vt.. Exhibition in August, and sold to Mr. Bartlett Arkell of N. Y., Manchester, Vt. and Canajoharie, N. Y. and hung over the mantel space in his beautiful drawing room at Manchester, perfect placing for a perfect picture."

We have not been able to confirm the accuracy of RSW's diary comments. We can only confirm that this piece of work did not appear in the original copies of the program catalogs for either the 1939 or 1940 Southern Vermont Artist Association Exhibitions and at this time, we have not found any other exhibit during that time period that list this piece as being exhibited

This painting was one of the first to be painted after RSW purchased the property on Burnt Hill he had discovered nearly 10 years prior. The purchase the property was made with the giving of Autumn Brilliance as a payment, as well as, Blue Drifts on another occasion.

When the artist was happy with a painting and it was sold quickly, Mr. Woodward would sometimes create a duplicate. This was the case with Sea of Hills. We know of at least two previous versions, one a chalk done shortly after discovering the pasture and was exhibited at the 1929 Pynchon Gallery Exhibition and is mentioned in the article to the right. The other is an oil painting dated around 1932 of which we have a sepia image for and if there are others we are not currently aware of them.