"Painted in about 1941. The painting of an old N. E. colonial house, high on the hill of the little village of East Dover, beyond Wilmington, Vt. This rare old house used to be a roadside inn or tavern. The ells have long since tumbled down since the canvas was painted. The old house is owned by a Yale professor and his wife who have a summer home on a high hill nearby - I think Prof. Andrews and I think Higley Hill."
In studio for sale. House, faded yellow. Old faded yellow house in Dover, Vt., with iridescent old glass window panes, a pearly gray sky. Mr. Frelinghuysen owns the chalk drawing (or pastel) of this house of which he is very fond.
This painting is now privately owned.
The Yale professor mentioned in RSW's diary comments could possibly be Charles
McLean Andrews a very famous historian and Pulitzer Prize winning author. Prof. Andrews is reported to have had
vacation homes in Jupiter, FL and East Dover, VT. Prof. Andrews retired from Yale in 1942 and died September 9, 1943,
two years after this artwork was painted.
For more regarding Charles McLean Andrews and his work, click any of the following links:
Wikipedia: Charles McLean Andrews
Yale University Library: Charles McLean Andrews papers
Answers.com: Charles McLean Andrews
As of June 2024, we know that
Mrs Adaline Havemeyer Frelinghuysen had purchased over 30 paintings from Woodward spanning a 21 year period of time.
Most of those paintings were pastels, her favorite, most likely due to her mother's friendship with artist Mary Cassatt
who once made portraits of her, her sisters, and mother in pastel when she was a child. Adaline's sister Electra Havemeyer
Webb is the founder of the Shelburne (VT) Museum and her father was sugar magnet Henery Osbourne Havemeyer. The Family's
famed art collection is one of the crown jewels of the Metropolitan MFA in New York City. Adaline is also the mother of
a Senator and grandmother of a Congressman, both of New Jersey. Below is just a few of her oil paintings...