Laura Woodward, Palm Beach. Watercolor, 1919, 12 by 18 inches. Signed lower right, LW.
Laura Woodward first came to St. Augustine in 1891, to Studio No.5 on Artists Row, at the Ponce de Leon Hotel. The St. Augustine News, February 22, 1891, “Miss Woodward was very pleased over some recent sales, and forgave the writer for not mentioning her and her exquisite watercolors last week. Indeed, Miss Woodward is so successful in her paintings of Florida scenery that she should be adopted by the entire state, for her pictures delineate large portions of it. She has been to Lake Worth, and some characteristic pictures of coconut groves, of the beautiful lake, the surrounding tropical scenery, would alone repay one for a visit to the studio, while some recent work of delineating cypress with the moss and bright green mingling and throwing shadows into the beautiful water beneath, are expressive and full of feeling. Miss Woodward has some beautiful view of these coasts also on exhibition.” By January, 1893 Woodward had moved her studio to Palm Beach and the Royal Poinciana Hotel. She later returned to St. Augustine as the guest of Mrs. M. J. Heade.
A year later, January 20, 1894, the St. Augustine Tatler noted, “Last season Laura Woodward, whose marines and bits of tropical scenery have carried truthful and artistic impressions of Florida and her wonderful tropical growth, her brilliant sunsets, after-glows and early morning effects of light and shade to every locality in the country, occupied this studio. (Frank Shapleigh’s on Artists Row) Now all is in chaos, for the artist is preparing to spend this season at Lake Worth, with a studio in the Royal Poinciana. Miss Woodward having passed the past summer and autumn in this richly endowed land of the coconut, the palm and the pine. Her studies of the wonderful Indian River scenery, the Banana and St. Lucie rivers, the unsurpassed tropical trees, palms and plant of the Lake Worth country are beautiful beyond compare. She has also reproduced the magnificent Royal Poinciana in its brilliant beauty, that the winter visitors to the house may enjoy it, as it blooms only in June, July and August. Every art lover here regrets Miss Woodward’s departure, and wishes her success in her new field.”
The St. Augustine Tatler, January 26, 1895, “Another artist whose work is especially interesting to visitors to this city is Miss Laura Woodard, who for five years has given her entire time to reproducing Florida scenery in both water and oil. Miss Woodward is a pupil of nature, reproducing pretty bits so truthfully that they are at once recognized. At the same time much of her work idealizes the subject, are tender and with excellent atmospheric effect. Her delineation of the beauties of Lake Worth, Indian, Banana and St. Lucie rivers, of the beach, ocean and bay here, scenes on the St. Johns and Ocklawaha rivers, are all true in drawing and color. Miss Woodward is now at Lake Worth, where she was during the building of the Royal Poinciana, securing a number of quaint pictures of the camps under the waving coconut trees, with figures of the workmen appearing in them. She has made several pictures of the beautiful Royal Poinciana Bloom, a gorgeous flower blooming only in summer. The Tatler, March 7, 1896, in commenting on Palm Beach, “Miss Laura Woodward’s studio in the Cory building has a constant stream of visitors appreciative of her artistic work. Miss Woodward’s best teacher was nature and her studies are faithful reproductions of charming bits along the beautiful lake or the romantic Indian river. Recently she visited Biscayne Bay and has many interesting studies of that country…,” and later: “Her watercolors of the Everglades, bits of New River, Bear Cut Inlet, Biscayne Bay, Arch Creek are especially charming.”
Palm Beach author and art historian, Debra Pollack, in her book, Laura Woodward, The Artist Behind The Innovator Who Developed Palm Beach, indicates that Woodward’s failing eyesight eventually forced her to stop painting. Woodward lived in Palm Beach until 1926 when, at the age of 92, she moved to St. Cloud, Florida, where, a month later, she died.
Born: 1834, Mount Hope, near Middletown, New York.
Died: 1926, St. Cloud, Florida.
Education: Brooklyn Academy of Design.
Membership: Palm Beach Art League, honorary membership, 1920.
Exhibits: American Art Gallery; Boston Art Club; Brooklyn Art Association, 1866, Autumn Leaves, A Leaf; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; Centennial Exposition of 1876; National Academy of Design, New York City, fall, 1891, Breakers on Anastasia Island; St. Augustine Hospital Fair, March 1892, Woodward donated two paintings, “typical southern pictures,” to raise money for the hospital fund; American Watercolor Society.
