"Painted in winter of 1941. Made in the studio from one of my very early paintings (loaned to Julia Wells Rea) so there's an old one and a new one. Painted from halfway up Town Farm Hill, a muddy road, edged with flowing thaw water, all dipping down steeply through large spring maples."
"A very poor 'hard' photograph of a very atmospheric delicate spring landscape. Rose, gray violet, white, with thaw, water at roadsides reflecting blue. (Now hanging at Myles Standish Hotel in Boston but quickly obtainable.)"
This 24 x 36 oil painting was made by RSW at the top of Town Farm
Hill (now the beginning of Charlemont Road) in Buckland Center, looking
down the hill toward the Mary Lyon church. He had previously made a 25
x 30 painting from the same spot which he had given away to another close
friend. This is mentioned in his diary. In those days this road was unpaved
and would get very rutted during "frost season" in the spring. The distant
crease in the mountain beyond, just under the left branches of the old maple
tree, was caused by the Hog Hollow Road headed over to East Buckland
and on to the Mary Lyon birthplace. This mountain is the shoulder of Putt's
Hill, a famous Buckland landmark.
MLP