Charles Burchfield

(American, 1893–1967)

Charles Burchfield was an American artist whose watercolor depictions of nature seem to hum with light and movement. Often focusing on scenes in his immediate surroundings—neighbors’ homes, wintry forests, and blooming wildflowers—Burchfield developed a unique stylization of form while maintaining a perceptive sense of weather and light. “It seems at times I should be a composer of sounds, not only of rhythms and colors,” he once remarked. “Walking under the trees, I felt as if the color made sound.” Born Charles Ephraim Burchfield in Ashtabula Harbor, OH on April 9, 1893, he studied at the Cleveland School of Art and later supported himself as a wallpaper designer for M.H. Birge & Sons Company in Buffalo, NY. While living in the town of West Seneca a suburb of Buffalo, he painted the surrounding landscape and industrial scenes, motifs similar to those of his friend the painter Edward Hopper. In 1930, the artist was the subject a solo exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, “Charles Burchfield: Early Watercolors 1916–18,” and in December 1936, Life magazine anointed him as one of America’s 10 greatest painters. During the 1940s, the artist created his most hallucinatory works, including the mystical Four Seasons (1949-1960), which with its exaggerated cathedral-like forms, depicts the seasonal transition of a forest over a calendar year. A month before his death on January 11, 1967 in West Seneca, NY, Buffalo State College honored his work by creating the Charles E. Burchfield Center. It holds the largest public collection of his works, over 70 volumes of his journals, and a scale re-creation of his studio. His works are also held in the collections of the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, among others.

Charles Burchfield Artworks

Charles Burchfield (1,152 results)
The Southeast Snowstorm, 1917

Charles Burchfield

The Southeast Snowstorm, 1917

Sale Date: May 10, 2019

Auction Closed

Beech Tree and the Valley of the Little Beaver, 1919

Charles Burchfield

Beech Tree and the Valley of the Little Beaver, 1919

Sale Date: May 2, 2019

Auction Closed

Autumn Wind, 1951

Charles Burchfield

Autumn Wind, 1951

Sale Date: May 2, 2019

Auction Closed

Summer Benediction, 1951–1952

Charles Burchfield

Summer Benediction, 1951–1952

Sale Date: March 23, 2019

Auction Closed

LATE SPRING STORM, 1916

Charles Burchfield

LATE SPRING STORM, 1916

Sale Date: March 6, 2019

Auction Closed

Red Telegraph Poles, 1919

Charles Burchfield

Red Telegraph Poles, 1919

Sale Date: December 11, 2018

Auction Closed

UNTITLED, 1916

Charles Burchfield

UNTITLED, 1916

Sale Date: December 16, 2018

Auction Closed

Doodle

Charles Burchfield

Doodle

Sale Date: December 5, 2018

Auction Closed

Summer Benediction, 1953

Charles Burchfield

Summer Benediction, 1953

Sale Date: December 5, 2018

Auction Closed

HILLSIDE HOMES, 1920

Charles Burchfield

HILLSIDE HOMES, 1920

Sale Date: November 16, 2018

Auction Closed

Summer Benediction, 1953

Charles Burchfield

Summer Benediction, 1953

Sale Date: November 14, 2018

Auction Closed

February Dusk, 1918

Charles Burchfield

February Dusk, 1918

Sale Date: November 14, 2018

Auction Closed

Untitled (House by the Hills), 1919

Charles Burchfield

Untitled (House by the Hills), 1919

Sale Date: November 19, 2018

Auction Closed

Untitled (House with Trees), 1912–1916

Charles Burchfield

Untitled (House with Trees), 1912–1916

Sale Date: November 19, 2018

Auction Closed

Untitled (Childhood), 1912–1916

Charles Burchfield

Untitled (Childhood), 1912–1916

Sale Date: November 19, 2018

Auction Closed

Untitled (Street Scene), 1916

Charles Burchfield

Untitled (Street Scene), 1916

Sale Date: October 24, 2018

Auction Closed

Sunset Over the Hills, 1919

Charles Burchfield

Sunset Over the Hills, 1919

Sale Date: October 24, 2018

Auction Closed

Summer Benediction., 1953

Charles Burchfield

Summer Benediction., 1953

Sale Date: November 1, 2018

Auction Closed

Frosted Windows, 1917

Charles Burchfield

Frosted Windows, 1917

Sale Date: October 5, 2018

Auction Closed

WINTER STREET SCENE WITH CHILDREN, 1928

Charles Burchfield

WINTER STREET SCENE WITH CHILDREN, 1928

Sale Date: October 2, 2018

Auction Closed

New England country church with weeping willow, 1957

Charles Burchfield

New England country church with weeping willow, 1957

Sale Date: September 30, 2018

Auction Closed

Summer Benediction, 1953

Charles Burchfield

Summer Benediction, 1953

Sale Date: September 20, 2018

Auction Closed

Setting For Canterbury Pilgrims, 1922

Charles Burchfield

Setting For Canterbury Pilgrims, 1922

Sale Date: June 9, 2018

Auction Closed

November Sunrise, 1920

Charles Burchfield

November Sunrise, 1920

Sale Date: June 14, 2018

Auction Closed