RSW's Diary Comments

The Mountain Shoulder, Sepia

"Painted in about 1932. Made from old Hoosac Tunnel Road looking down toward river at Hoosac Tunnel. Generally exhibited and bought by Clifford A. Richmond, 37 Park St., Easthampton, Mass. for his library."

FROM RSW's 1932 PERSONAL DIARY:

Sunday, July 24

Hot, but very windy. Feeling wretchedly ill. Mrs. Wise so slow; could not get started to work til 12:15. Picked up Julia H. with Annie R. (Henry driving) went to Keach's on errand. Picked up lunch at Charlemont and went to old Hoosac Mt. Road (up trail) to paint. Worked til 6:30, then home to supper on Porch.

Editor's Note & Addendum:

For some time now we had this painting cited as being painted in the summer of 1932, however, we have recently discovered this canvas hung twenty months earlier, also at the Grand Central Art Galleries in March of 1931. Since it is a later summer painting, it can only have been made in late summer of 1930 or about six months before its first exhibit. This was not uncommon. Woodward, like all businessmen needed to plan according to his cycles. Late summer paintings would be made to carry him through the early winter months and hang at an event in Spring.

East entrance to the Hoosac Tunnel today

Art Chat, Anna W. Olmsted

".....(The) Mountain Shoulder, reminding one of Du Bose Heyward's poem 'Here Where the Mountains Shoulder to the Skies' ....."

• Sold on Feb. 19, 1996, for $1,000 at auction in Northampton, Mass. Unknown buyer.

Recently, the website has taken an interest in pinpointing the locations from which Woodward may have painted a particular painting. ⮟

• We are not certain Woodward's reference to "old Hoosac Mt. Road (up trail)" is related to this painting. We believe is is very likely, especially considering the remarks of "old" and "up trail." We could not exactly pinpoint his location which suggest he knew of an old trail, possibly a logging road.

Topographic Map of the tunnel area illustrates
where we believe this painting was painted.

• For this piece we have enough information to put him in an area, however from a topographical map (to the right), there appears to be two different shoulders and roads that circle around the area giving multiple vantage points.


One problem is that we do not see the Deerfield River in the painting. The topography of shoulder #1 is long and sloping and shoulder #2 is short and takes a steep drop. Our best guess is that this painting is of shoulder #2 because of it's steep drop. So that puts Woodward North of the tunnel somewhere near what is today Monroe Road looking south. It was suggested that this painting was painted from the Mohawk Trail (MA Rte 2). However, you can clearly see a hillside farm and road to the upper left of the painting.

Painted the year before, June Hills shows
the topography illustrated on the map above

To the left, June Hills gives one a good sense of the area. Painted the summer before Mountain Shoulder, you can see both shoulders and the knoll between them. The shoulder to the left of the painting is the shoulder Woodward painted.

June Hills was painted the same year, in the same summer as Mountain Shoulder (late summer, 1930) and the two will be forever linked because they are both different perspective of the Hoosac Tunnel/Deerfield River Valley near Florida, MA., along the Mohawk Trail (MA Rte 2) heading towards North Adams, MA. In each painting you can almost see the vantage point in each painting from which he painted the other.