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)
A sea of Queen Anne's lace, 1962–1963

Charles Burchfield

A sea of Queen Anne's lace, 1962–1963

Sale Date: May 24, 2006

Auction Closed

Goldenrod and shed, 1923

Charles Burchfield

Goldenrod and shed, 1923

Sale Date: May 3, 2006

Auction Closed

Autumn wind, 1952

Charles Burchfield

Autumn wind, 1952

Sale Date: May 1, 2006

Auction Closed

Summer benediction, 1951–1952

Charles Burchfield

Summer benediction, 1951–1952

Sale Date: March 26, 2006

Auction Closed

Saturday night (collab. w/Julius J. Lankes), 1925

Charles Burchfield

Saturday night (collab. w/Julius J. Lankes), 1925

Sale Date: March 6, 2006

Auction Closed

Summer benediction, 1953

Charles Burchfield

Summer benediction, 1953

Sale Date: March 6, 2006

Auction Closed

Crows in March, 1951

Charles Burchfield

Crows in March, 1951

Sale Date: March 6, 2006

Auction Closed

Autumn wind, 1951

Charles Burchfield

Autumn wind, 1951

Sale Date: March 6, 2006

Auction Closed

Pear tree and elderblossoms (Wind-blown..., 1939

Charles Burchfield

Pear tree and elderblossoms (Wind-blown..., 1939

Sale Date: March 1, 2006

Auction Closed

Long summer evening, 1916

Charles Burchfield

Long summer evening, 1916

Sale Date: March 2, 2006

Auction Closed

Pear tree and elderblossoms (Wind-blown..., 1939

Charles Burchfield

Pear tree and elderblossoms (Wind-blown..., 1939

Sale Date: January 26, 2006

Auction Closed

Initials

Charles Burchfield

Initials

Sale Date: January 12, 2006

Auction Closed

Summer benediction, 1951–1952

Charles Burchfield

Summer benediction, 1951–1952

Sale Date: December 10, 2005

Auction Closed

Moonlight (Along a country road), 1937

Charles Burchfield

Moonlight (Along a country road), 1937

Sale Date: December 12, 2005

Auction Closed

March Sunlight, 1932

Charles Burchfield

March Sunlight, 1932

Sale Date: November 30, 2005

Auction Closed

Plowing in November, 1926

Charles Burchfield

Plowing in November, 1926

Sale Date: November 30, 2005

Auction Closed

New moon in the woods, 1947–1964

Charles Burchfield

New moon in the woods, 1947–1964

Sale Date: December 1, 2005

Auction Closed

Hillside homes, 1920

Charles Burchfield

Hillside homes, 1920

Sale Date: November 30, 2005

Auction Closed

Beginning of a snowstorm, 1920

Charles Burchfield

Beginning of a snowstorm, 1920

Sale Date: November 30, 2005

Auction Closed

Wind in the night, 1939–1949

Charles Burchfield

Wind in the night, 1939–1949

Sale Date: November 30, 2005

Auction Closed

Sultry day, 1959

Charles Burchfield

Sultry day, 1959

Sale Date: November 30, 2005

Auction Closed

Tree, 1912

Charles Burchfield

Tree, 1912

Sale Date: November 17, 2005

Auction Closed

Summer benediction, 1951–1952

Charles Burchfield

Summer benediction, 1951–1952

Sale Date: October 22, 2005

Auction Closed

Abstract studies, 1959–1960

Charles Burchfield

Abstract studies, 1959–1960

Sale Date: January 24, 1989

Auction Closed

English (US)

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