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)
Sketch (+ Emblematic drawing, verso), 1960

Charles Burchfield

Sketch (+ Emblematic drawing, verso), 1960

Sale Date: March 13, 2005

Auction Closed

Dead tree and sunburst, 1959

Charles Burchfield

Dead tree and sunburst, 1959

Sale Date: July 14, 2005

Auction Closed

Doodle (+ another, verso)

Charles Burchfield

Doodle (+ another, verso)

Sale Date: June 19, 2005

Auction Closed

Summer benediction, 1951–1952

Charles Burchfield

Summer benediction, 1951–1952

Sale Date: June 11, 2005

Auction Closed

Landscape with buildings in the foreground, 1916

Charles Burchfield

Landscape with buildings in the foreground, 1916

Sale Date: June 16, 2005

Auction Closed

Telephone poles

Charles Burchfield

Telephone poles

Sale Date: June 9, 2005

Auction Closed

Sunrays and buildings

Charles Burchfield

Sunrays and buildings

Sale Date: June 9, 2005

Auction Closed

Study for the three trees, 1915–1929

Charles Burchfield

Study for the three trees, 1915–1929

Sale Date: June 9, 2005

Auction Closed

Willow tree, 1924

Charles Burchfield

Willow tree, 1924

Sale Date: June 9, 2005

Auction Closed

The Great Rock, 1922

Charles Burchfield

The Great Rock, 1922

Sale Date: June 9, 2005

Auction Closed

Pursuit, 1920

Charles Burchfield

Pursuit, 1920

Sale Date: June 9, 2005

Auction Closed

Tree lined street, 1916

Charles Burchfield

Tree lined street, 1916

Sale Date: June 9, 2005

Auction Closed

Country scene with wagon on road, 1920

Charles Burchfield

Country scene with wagon on road, 1920

Sale Date: May 24, 2005

Auction Closed

Barber Shop, South Carolina (Columbia), 1918

Charles Burchfield

Barber Shop, South Carolina (Columbia), 1918

Sale Date: May 24, 2005

Auction Closed

March thaw - Post's Woods, March, 1916

Charles Burchfield

March thaw - Post's Woods, March, 1916

Sale Date: May 24, 2005

Auction Closed

Mid-April landscape, 1933

Charles Burchfield

Mid-April landscape, 1933

Sale Date: May 24, 1989

Auction Closed

Winter sun, 1961

Charles Burchfield

Winter sun, 1961

Sale Date: May 24, 1989

Auction Closed

Wheatfields, 1917

Charles Burchfield

Wheatfields, 1917

Sale Date: May 24, 1989

Auction Closed

Wild bleeding hearts, 1961

Charles Burchfield

Wild bleeding hearts, 1961

Sale Date: May 24, 1989

Auction Closed

Backyards in golden sunlight, 1966

Charles Burchfield

Backyards in golden sunlight, 1966

Sale Date: May 19, 2005

Auction Closed

Bright sun, 1916

Charles Burchfield

Bright sun, 1916

Sale Date: May 19, 2005

Auction Closed

Cicada's morning song, 1955

Charles Burchfield

Cicada's morning song, 1955

Sale Date: May 19, 2005

Auction Closed

Sunlight after the rain, 1916

Charles Burchfield

Sunlight after the rain, 1916

Sale Date: May 19, 2005

Auction Closed

Fallen tree in woods, 1943–1945

Charles Burchfield

Fallen tree in woods, 1943–1945

Sale Date: May 18, 2005

Auction Closed

English (US)

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