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)
Lacy Trees and Sunlit Clouds, 1916

Charles Burchfield

Lacy Trees and Sunlit Clouds, 1916

Sale Date: June 12, 2014

Auction Closed

September wind, 1955

Charles Burchfield

September wind, 1955

Sale Date: May 21, 2014

Auction Closed

Evening--Early Winter, 1935

Charles Burchfield

Evening--Early Winter, 1935

Sale Date: May 22, 2014

Auction Closed

Deserted Miner's Home, 1918

Charles Burchfield

Deserted Miner's Home, 1918

Sale Date: May 22, 2014

Auction Closed

Untitled (Shimmering stream)

Charles Burchfield

Untitled (Shimmering stream)

Sale Date: May 21, 2014

Auction Closed

Sunlit Willows, 1915

Charles Burchfield

Sunlit Willows, 1915

Sale Date: May 21, 2014

Auction Closed

Tree, 1912

Charles Burchfield

Tree, 1912

Sale Date: April 30, 2014

Auction Closed

House by a Country Road, 1949

Charles Burchfield

House by a Country Road, 1949

Sale Date: May 6, 2014

Auction Closed

Pond in spring (Wade park, Cleveland), 1916

Charles Burchfield

Pond in spring (Wade park, Cleveland), 1916

Sale Date: April 16, 2014

Auction Closed

February wind and sunlight (The wind..., 1947–1957

Charles Burchfield

February wind and sunlight (The wind..., 1947–1957

Sale Date: April 16, 2014

Auction Closed

Summer Benediction, 1951–1952

Charles Burchfield

Summer Benediction, 1951–1952

Sale Date: March 22, 2014

Auction Closed

Autumn Wind, 1951

Charles Burchfield

Autumn Wind, 1951

Sale Date: March 6, 2014

Auction Closed

Dandelion Field, 1916

Charles Burchfield

Dandelion Field, 1916

Sale Date: February 26, 2014

Auction Closed

Swamp in Spring, 1918

Charles Burchfield

Swamp in Spring, 1918

Sale Date: February 26, 2014

Auction Closed

Wood Lilies, 1944

Charles Burchfield

Wood Lilies, 1944

Sale Date: December 5, 2013

Auction Closed

Yearning, 1951

Charles Burchfield

Yearning, 1951

Sale Date: December 5, 2013

Auction Closed

Summer Heat, 1915

Charles Burchfield

Summer Heat, 1915

Sale Date: December 5, 2013

Auction Closed

Tree in a Landscape

Charles Burchfield

Tree in a Landscape

Sale Date: December 5, 2013

Auction Closed

Rising Fog in Winter, 1917

Charles Burchfield

Rising Fog in Winter, 1917

Sale Date: December 5, 2013

Auction Closed

Noon in September, 1916

Charles Burchfield

Noon in September, 1916

Sale Date: December 5, 2013

Auction Closed

The Walk Home, 1940

Charles Burchfield

The Walk Home, 1940

Sale Date: November 23, 2013

Auction Closed

Untitled (Street Scene in Winter), 1917

Charles Burchfield

Untitled (Street Scene in Winter), 1917

Sale Date: December 4, 2013

Auction Closed

Summer Benediction, 1951–1952

Charles Burchfield

Summer Benediction, 1951–1952

Sale Date: October 19, 2013

Auction Closed

Winter, 1948

Charles Burchfield

Winter, 1948

Sale Date: October 3, 2013

Auction Closed

English (US)

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