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)
The east wind, 1915

Charles Burchfield

The east wind, 1915

Sale Date: November 18, 2010

Auction Closed

Country church, 1924

Charles Burchfield

Country church, 1924

Sale Date: November 18, 2010

Auction Closed

Bird shadow in spring, 1937

Charles Burchfield

Bird shadow in spring, 1937

Sale Date: November 30, 2010

Auction Closed

Summer benediction, 1953

Charles Burchfield

Summer benediction, 1953

Sale Date: October 28, 2010

Auction Closed

Birds in flight, 1917

Charles Burchfield

Birds in flight, 1917

Sale Date: September 29, 2010

Auction Closed

October sunlight, 1950

Charles Burchfield

October sunlight, 1950

Sale Date: September 29, 2010

Auction Closed

Store front, late afternoon, 1935

Charles Burchfield

Store front, late afternoon, 1935

Sale Date: September 28, 2010

Auction Closed

Landscape with darkened sky, 1916

Charles Burchfield

Landscape with darkened sky, 1916

Sale Date: August 6, 2010

Auction Closed

Landscape, 1920

Charles Burchfield

Landscape, 1920

Sale Date: May 27, 2010

Auction Closed

A small town, 1918

Charles Burchfield

A small town, 1918

Sale Date: May 19, 2010

Auction Closed

February dusk, 1918

Charles Burchfield

February dusk, 1918

Sale Date: May 20, 2010

Auction Closed

Sea of Queen Anne's lace and cicada song, 1960

Charles Burchfield

Sea of Queen Anne's lace and cicada song, 1960

Sale Date: May 20, 2010

Auction Closed

Great cloud shadow, 1959

Charles Burchfield

Great cloud shadow, 1959

Sale Date: May 20, 2010

Auction Closed

Cicada's morning song, 1955

Charles Burchfield

Cicada's morning song, 1955

Sale Date: May 20, 2010

Auction Closed

The storm, 1916

Charles Burchfield

The storm, 1916

Sale Date: May 20, 2010

Auction Closed

Late winter afternoon, 1938

Charles Burchfield

Late winter afternoon, 1938

Sale Date: May 5, 2010

Auction Closed

Autumn wind, 1952

Charles Burchfield

Autumn wind, 1952

Sale Date: April 29, 2010

Auction Closed

Summer benediction (+ Crows in march,..., 1951–1952

Charles Burchfield

Summer benediction (+ Crows in march,..., 1951–1952

Sale Date: April 29, 2010

Auction Closed

Snow on the roof tops, Salem, 1920

Charles Burchfield

Snow on the roof tops, Salem, 1920

Sale Date: March 28, 2010

Auction Closed

Summer benediction, 1951–1952

Charles Burchfield

Summer benediction, 1951–1952

Sale Date: March 21, 2010

Auction Closed

The east wind, 1915

Charles Burchfield

The east wind, 1915

Sale Date: March 3, 2010

Auction Closed

Eclipse of the moon in spring, 1949

Charles Burchfield

Eclipse of the moon in spring, 1949

Sale Date: March 3, 2010

Auction Closed

Portrait of the artist's mother (study), 1917

Charles Burchfield

Portrait of the artist's mother (study), 1917

Sale Date: March 3, 2010

Auction Closed

Snow light, 1936

Charles Burchfield

Snow light, 1936

Sale Date: June 11, 2009

Auction Closed

English (US)

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