Vintage magazines can make for very interesting reading! The October 1920 issue of The Ladies’ Home Journal, which cost 20 cents, contained 212 pages filled with short stories, essays, fashion, home and garden advice and advertisements. These included still-familiar items such as Ivory Soap or Cream of Wheat as well as long-gone ones like the Electric Laundress (Cleans Two Ways!), the Victrola and many styles of corsets. I found a copy of this issue here.

My Granny, Edith Borrowman, was perusing her copy and came across a poem by Alfred Noyes with a reproduction of the vivid painting by William G. Krieghoff which had inspired it. This painting, entitled The Burning Boughs, was extolled by the Tribune journalist as quoted in my post of March 26, 2023.

Granny contacted the artist about acquiring the painting for her home and a correspondence ensued. I do not have Granny’s letters, only the replies that she received. Here is the first one, and my transcription of it, in which he says the painting is not available, but that he could paint a similar, larger one for her:

A second letter followed about a month later, explaining that he did have the original after all, and quoting a price for it, unframed. I love the reference to her sending him photos of her “sturdy son”!

However, unbeknownst to Granny, our Grandpa, Leroy Borrowman, had also been in correspondence with the artist, William G. Krieghoff, to acquire the painting as a surprise Christmas gift for his wife.

Here is the artist’s reply:

Clearly from this reply, Grandpa had asked for Mr. Krieghoff’s discretion in keeping his plan a secret from Granny. Notice that the letter is addressed to Grandpa’s place of work, his construction company.

This next letter shows that Grandpa has indeed purchased and paid for the painting, and had instructed the artist to ship it to his mother’s home address in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Perhaps a Christmas visit was planned?) Mr. Krieghoff took the liberty of having it framed and also enclosed a second (deceptive) letter to be shown to Granny, regretting that the painting was no longer available; he hopes the subterfuge will ultimately appeal to her sense of humour! Seems it was a good thing Grandpa committed to the purchase when he did, as the poet who had been so inspired by it had also written, eager to own the original.

And here follows the letter suggesting that he had sold it to the poet, which was to be shown to Granny, no doubt to her great disappointment:

The final piece of correspondence is Mr. Krieghoff’s acknowledgement of receipt of the returned frame, which was apparently not to our grandparents’ taste.

All these letters together provide an interesting record of the provenance of the painting.

I can just picture Granny’s surprise and delight that Christmas when she did, in fact, receive The Burning Boughs. It graced her mantlepiece in Winnipeg for the rest of her life and is now much appreciated in my sister Jeanne’s home in Edmonton.

Tags: letters, memorabilia, painting