Featured Artwork: September Pastoral, Chalk #1

• Woodward did not keep records of the pastels he called "chalk drawings."

When Autumn Comes, 1943
We believe the pastel above is the "copy" that went to
the Pettises referred to in the letter to F. Earl Williams.

Excerpt from a letter to F. Earl Williams from RSW dated, November 22, 1943:

"Last week I made a perfect copy of the Tognarelli chalk September Pastoral -- (which goes to the Tognarelli's tomorrow) so as to have it as a surprise when the Pettises come up in December. I never copied a chalk, in chalk, before. The results were splendid."

Editor's Note:

All of the information we have on this pastel comes from the letter above from Woodward to his friend F. Earl Williams. Dr. Mark is away serving in the military (probably Utah). However, he is aware of this painting because Woodward makes an oil painting from the pastel When Autumn Comes (not September Pastoral) and holds on to it for another five years before selling it to the Dean of Smith College at the time, Mr. Gordon Woodward.

Most all of the information we have on this pastel, its sibling (When Autumn Comes) and comes from two letters written to his friend Williams and the painting dairy entry for A Clear September Day ⮟

A Clear September Day (c. 1943) is the oil painting RSW
made from Mr. Tognarelli's pastel September Pastoral. He
says as much in his painting diary for the canvas. However,
he also says the year was 1945... The diary was written most-
ly from memory and is unreliable in many ways. See more ⮞

We have another letter from Woodward to Earl Williams. It is after the letter cited above and we are working on a date but it provides us more information supporting our argument that A Clear September Day was made from When Autumn Comes and not September Pastoral. In this letter, Woodward tells Williams about his experience trying to fix a criticism Williams made of the angular tree to the far right of the paintings. "I put more grace into that right hand angular tree trunk which you criticized and it really was a great improvement..." We do not have an image of September Pastoral to compare, but if we did, we are certain it would be just slightly different when comparing it with the angular tree to the right in When Autumn Comes. Heck, we would argue that all three angular trees to the far right of the scene are all different! You can see side by side comp-arisons of the two pictures we have on their respective art work pages. The only difference, outside of size matching are the angular trees.

✽ We know it is the Patten District because of Massemet Mountain in the distance has a fire tower peaking just above the trees. Also, while RSW's painting diary is unreliable in many ways, it is usually close. A Clear September Day, was probably made from the Pettis pastel When Autumn Comes.

This is an overlay illustration of A Clear September Day on top of When Autumn Comes. They line up pretty well
considering that the board of the pastel in 22" x 29 versus the squarer 25" x 30" for the canvas. We used the "V"
of the double birch trees on the right as our focal point for lining the two paintings up for the illustration.

      ⮟ MORE BELOW ⮟       CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

An illustration of the "angled tree to the right"
from When Autumn Comes. Pastels are very hard to
fix so look at the tree and study the area on the right

We wish Dr. Mark was here to ask him about this... but we are now questioning a couple of things and putting together others. First, we do not believe that there is a second chalk drawing titled, September Pastoral #2. We do not think Woodward would do that in this particular instance.

Furthermore, there is the reference to the angular tree on the right side of the painting from Woodward's letter to Dr. Mark which matches another pastel we know of the Patten District in Shelburne- When Autumn Comes seen above. To the right we have a close up of what we believe is the angled tree Woodward is referring to. Actually, if you look closer at the image by enlarging it, you will see colors in the tree that do not quite fit, as if it was altered. The tree does not appear to be fully colored inside its border.

Tracing the remarks made by Dr. Mark, with the information from the letter Woodward wrote to Williams, and the painting diary remarks made for A Clear September Day, September Pastoral is the same scene as When Autumn Comes. We are certain of this.