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.

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Charles Burchfield Artworks

Artworks for Sale &
Auction Results

Charles Burchfield (1,152 results)
Study for

Charles Burchfield

Study for "Return of the Bluebirds", 1952

Sale Date: June 14, 2018

Auction Closed

Red Trees Against the Lake, 1915

Charles Burchfield

Red Trees Against the Lake, 1915

Sale Date: June 14, 2018

Auction Closed

Lone Tree in Landscape, 1916–1920

Charles Burchfield

Lone Tree in Landscape, 1916–1920

Sale Date: June 14, 2018

Auction Closed

Half Past Five, 1917

Charles Burchfield

Half Past Five, 1917

Sale Date: June 14, 2018

Auction Closed

January Spring, 1918

Charles Burchfield

January Spring, 1918

Sale Date: June 14, 2018

Auction Closed

January Spring (Rooftops), 1918

Charles Burchfield

January Spring (Rooftops), 1918

Sale Date: June 14, 2018

Auction Closed

Untitled (Trees), 1916

Charles Burchfield

Untitled (Trees), 1916

Sale Date: June 14, 2018

Auction Closed

Brook, 1916

Charles Burchfield

Brook, 1916

Sale Date: June 14, 2018

Auction Closed

High noon, 1916

Charles Burchfield

High noon, 1916

Sale Date: June 3, 2018

Auction Closed

POWER LINES AND SNOW, 1916

Charles Burchfield

POWER LINES AND SNOW, 1916

Sale Date: May 23, 2018

Auction Closed

INSECT CHORUS IN SEPTEMBER, 1952

Charles Burchfield

INSECT CHORUS IN SEPTEMBER, 1952

Sale Date: May 23, 2018

Auction Closed

Night Scene, 1929

Charles Burchfield

Night Scene, 1929

Sale Date: May 10, 2018

Auction Closed

Untitled (Landscape with Trees and Houses), 1917

Charles Burchfield

Untitled (Landscape with Trees and Houses), 1917

Sale Date: May 23, 2018

Auction Closed

Untitled (Landscape in a Field), 1917

Charles Burchfield

Untitled (Landscape in a Field), 1917

Sale Date: May 23, 2018

Auction Closed

Cold White Light, 1916

Charles Burchfield

Cold White Light, 1916

Sale Date: May 23, 2018

Auction Closed

Summer Benediction, 1953

Charles Burchfield

Summer Benediction, 1953

Sale Date: May 8, 2018

Auction Closed

Red Telegraph Poles, 1919

Charles Burchfield

Red Telegraph Poles, 1919

Sale Date: May 22, 2018

Auction Closed

Cicada Sun, 1950–1965

Charles Burchfield

Cicada Sun, 1950–1965

Sale Date: May 22, 2018

Auction Closed

Cherry Blossom Snow, 1917–1945

Charles Burchfield

Cherry Blossom Snow, 1917–1945

Sale Date: May 22, 2018

Auction Closed

SUMMER BENEDICTION (P. 193), 1951–1952

Charles Burchfield

SUMMER BENEDICTION (P. 193), 1951–1952

Sale Date: May 1, 2018

Auction Closed

CROWS IN MARCH (P. 192), 1951

Charles Burchfield

CROWS IN MARCH (P. 192), 1951

Sale Date: May 1, 2018

Auction Closed

AUTUMN WIND (PRASSE 191), 1951

Charles Burchfield

AUTUMN WIND (PRASSE 191), 1951

Sale Date: May 1, 2018

Auction Closed

Country Home in Midsummer, 1951

Charles Burchfield

Country Home in Midsummer, 1951

Sale Date: May 9, 2018

Auction Closed

June Night (Luna Moth, Tulip Tree in Bloom..., 1959

Charles Burchfield

June Night (Luna Moth, Tulip Tree in Bloom..., 1959

Sale Date: May 9, 2018

Auction Closed

English (US)

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