RSW's Diary Comments

"Painted in 1936. The present 'Gandy' place over at Dodge Corners in Hawley. Widely exhibited. Once at Springfield Museum in exhibition of noted Americana called Future Forefathers, in 1939. Bought in 1945 by Mrs. Roger R. Smith of 75 Elm Street, Gardner, Massachusetts."

Editor's NOTE:

This painting was purchased from the 1944 Mr. & Mrs. Roger Smith Exhibition. A private exhibition of celebrated paintings arranged by F. Earl Williams. Go to the bottom of this page for more on the Smith exhibit and for a breakdown of the hills in the painting.

There is also a chalk drawing titled On a Mountain Farm that is, in all likelihood, another version of this mountain farm scene.

From a Mountain Farm Sketch

This scene was made from Dodge Corner in Hawley, MA looking east toward Buckland. It is a remarkable and unique perspective of the hilly landscape surrounding Buckland and features Hog Mountain prominently in the foreground. Go to the Bonus Material Section below for a much more detailed description of the hills seen ⮟

⮜ Woodward made a fairly detailed sketch of this scene found in one of his sketchbooks from the mid-1930s. In and of itself, is a work of art in its own right. It demonstrates the sentimental importance of this painting.

A close up of the farm

A close up of the hills

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The 1944 Mr. & Mrs. Roger Smith Exhibition:

Portrait of a Shadow and A Mountain Farm hanging
in the home of Roger Smith for a private exhibition

To the right: is a photograph of Portrait of a Shadow, along with From a Mountain Farm hanging on the wall for a private exhibition in the home of Mr. & Mrs. Roger Smith of Gardner, MA, December, 1944. The picture was taken by Woodward friend, educator, and amateur photo-grapher F. Earl Williams. Williams was once the principal of Gardner High School and so we believe he had something to do with arranging this rare exhibition of Woodward's paintings in a private resid-ence. The three paintings are missing photographs and are New England Impressions*, Winter Farms, and From the North Window*. The paintings photo-graphed are as follows in pairs: Portrait of a Shadow and A Mountain Farm, April Sun and Frost on the Window, A Winter Song* and The Big Chimney*, there is the chalk drawing The Road Home, the oil A Winter Afternoon and other chalk Mountain Meadow together and then Tranquility, and The Little Red Barn* as singles. Click the link to anyone of these paintings to see the picture.

What an exhibition this was! Worthy of any New York or Boston Gallery, it featured a number of Woodward's most exhibited editorial paintings going back as far as 1935. [noted by an asterisk*] Two of the paintings hanging at the exhibit, A Winter Song and New England Impression previously hung at the 1939 Golden Gate Exposition in San Francisco and the 1939 New York World's Fair respectively.

As described in the diary comments above, the scene is from Dodge Corner Road in Hawley, MA, looking east toward Buckland. It is the most unique perspective of the hilly landscape of Buckland and it features all but three "hills" of Buckland. The most prominent is Hog Mountain just over the town line of Hawley behind the farm. To just give you an idea of just how high up Dodge Corner is from the distant hills you see. The 1927 topographical map below has Dodge Corner at an elevation of 1928ft. to Hog Mountain's 1621ft. peak. This height is how Woodward gets Hog, and Koochaug, a hint of Lone Tree Hill, as well as Drake Hill to the far right in the foreground. In the distance, al most straight ahead is Mary Lyon Hill flanked by Putt's Hill which shares a ridgeline, then Johnson Hill and Goodnow Hill behind it.A powerful image illustrating the essence of Buckland's geography.

An image of a capture from a 1927 U.S. Survey Map of Buckland. In the circle is Dodge Corner. The arrow
indicates the direction Woodward is facing. It is east but leans in the southerly direction. This view only excludes three other named hills of Buckland. Orcutt Hill is blocked by Lone Tree Hill. Moonshine Hill, is smaller than and behind Mary Lyon Hill, and Crittenden Hill (not on the map) is behind Goodnow Hill and technically part of the Shelburne Falls district shared with Shelburne, MA. (The map is in the collection of the University of Texas, Austin)

A cropped image of From a Mountain Farm, labeled, naming and marking all the hills.