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)
Summer benediction, 1951

Charles Burchfield

Summer benediction, 1951

Sale Date: November 11, 2007

Auction Closed

View from the studio, Seneca, New York

Charles Burchfield

View from the studio, Seneca, New York

Sale Date: November 28, 2007

Auction Closed

View southeast of emporium (Village by a..., 1941

Charles Burchfield

View southeast of emporium (Village by a..., 1941

Sale Date: November 29, 2007

Auction Closed

Lonely house, 1926–1954

Charles Burchfield

Lonely house, 1926–1954

Sale Date: November 28, 2007

Auction Closed

Honey locust in bloom, 1949–1955

Charles Burchfield

Honey locust in bloom, 1949–1955

Sale Date: November 28, 2007

Auction Closed

A dream of butterflies, 1962

Charles Burchfield

A dream of butterflies, 1962

Sale Date: November 28, 2007

Auction Closed

Trees in meadow, 1951–1956

Charles Burchfield

Trees in meadow, 1951–1956

Sale Date: November 28, 2007

Auction Closed

Moon over village, 1917

Charles Burchfield

Moon over village, 1917

Sale Date: November 28, 2007

Auction Closed

Abandoned mine, 1919

Charles Burchfield

Abandoned mine, 1919

Sale Date: October 10, 2007

Auction Closed

Summer benediction, 1953

Charles Burchfield

Summer benediction, 1953

Sale Date: September 9, 2007

Auction Closed

Face in the foliage, 1918

Charles Burchfield

Face in the foliage, 1918

Sale Date: September 12, 2007

Auction Closed

Sunflowers and red barn, 1942

Charles Burchfield

Sunflowers and red barn, 1942

Sale Date: June 22, 2007

Auction Closed

Summer benediction, 1951–1952

Charles Burchfield

Summer benediction, 1951–1952

Sale Date: June 16, 2007

Auction Closed

Untitled (+ another, verso; 2 works)

Charles Burchfield

Untitled (+ another, verso; 2 works)

Sale Date: June 9, 2007

Auction Closed

Moonscape (+ Dropping tree branches; 2 works), 1915

Charles Burchfield

Moonscape (+ Dropping tree branches; 2 works), 1915

Sale Date: June 7, 2007

Auction Closed

Backyard (Between houses)

Charles Burchfield

Backyard (Between houses)

Sale Date: June 13, 2007

Auction Closed

Untitled (+ 17 others; 18 works)

Charles Burchfield

Untitled (+ 17 others; 18 works)

Sale Date: May 24, 2007

Auction Closed

Old barn, 1919

Charles Burchfield

Old barn, 1919

Sale Date: May 24, 2007

Auction Closed

'twas the night before Christmas, 1945

Charles Burchfield

'twas the night before Christmas, 1945

Sale Date: May 23, 2007

Auction Closed

Dawn in Hemlock Woods, 1946–1961

Charles Burchfield

Dawn in Hemlock Woods, 1946–1961

Sale Date: May 23, 2007

Auction Closed

Spider, butterfly and sun, 1957

Charles Burchfield

Spider, butterfly and sun, 1957

Sale Date: May 24, 2007

Auction Closed

Summer benediction, 1953

Charles Burchfield

Summer benediction, 1953

Sale Date: May 3, 2007

Auction Closed

Trees, 1916

Charles Burchfield

Trees, 1916

Sale Date: March 8, 2007

Auction Closed

The artist's studio, Buffalo, 1941

Charles Burchfield

The artist's studio, Buffalo, 1941

Sale Date: November 30, 2006

Auction Closed

English (US)

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