"Painted in fall of 1940. The Heath pasture beech tree and band of hills, under a cloud-decked sky of autumn
intensity, a beautiful fall light on the hills. Sold Feb. 1947, by Vose Galleries to... "
Woodward painted this in the fall of 1940, still, it does not appear at any exhibition until it hangs in the Vose Gallery in 1945. This suggest to us that
perhaps he kept it for himself for a time or lent it to a friend.
The year 1940 is important because that is the year his pasture studio would be completed.
It is also a rare fall scene with the beech's leaves still attached. Much more common is his stark November paintings of a bare tree.