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 SULPHUR STREAM, 1917

Charles Burchfield

THE SULPHUR STREAM, 1917

Sale Date: September 22, 1994

Auction Closed

SPRING TWILIGHT, MAY 1916, 1916

Charles Burchfield

SPRING TWILIGHT, MAY 1916, 1916

Sale Date: September 22, 1994

Auction Closed

The Old Barn, 1918

Charles Burchfield

The Old Barn, 1918

Sale Date: September 21, 1994

Auction Closed

ABSTRACTION

Charles Burchfield

ABSTRACTION

Sale Date: August 25, 1994

Auction Closed

Mid-May landscape, 1965

Charles Burchfield

Mid-May landscape, 1965

Sale Date: May 26, 1994

Auction Closed

The Sun and the Wild Sweetpeas, 1964

Circle of Charles Burchfield

The Sun and the Wild Sweetpeas, 1964

Sale Date: May 26, 1994

Auction Closed

Hot July Wind, 1955–1960

Charles Burchfield

Hot July Wind, 1955–1960

Sale Date: May 26, 1994

Auction Closed

Church with poplars, 1916

Charles Burchfield

Church with poplars, 1916

Sale Date: May 23, 1994

Auction Closed

Sun breaking through the clouds, 1916

Charles Burchfield

Sun breaking through the clouds, 1916

Sale Date: May 23, 1994

Auction Closed

DECEMBER SUNLIGHT, 1943

Charles Burchfield

DECEMBER SUNLIGHT, 1943

Sale Date: May 6, 1994

Auction Closed

ICE BOUND LAKE BOAT, FOOT OF MICHIGAN..., 1925

Charles Burchfield

ICE BOUND LAKE BOAT, FOOT OF MICHIGAN..., 1925

Sale Date: May 6, 1994

Auction Closed

WINTER SUN THROUGH POPLARS, 1916

Charles Burchfield

WINTER SUN THROUGH POPLARS, 1916

Sale Date: May 6, 1994

Auction Closed

Sunset, 1915–1916

Charles Burchfield

Sunset, 1915–1916

Sale Date: March 31, 1994

Auction Closed

Summer Benediction, 1951

Charles Burchfield

Summer Benediction, 1951

Sale Date: March 25, 1994

Auction Closed

Sunflowers

Charles Burchfield

Sunflowers

Sale Date: March 25, 1994

Auction Closed

Summer Benediction, 1951

Charles Burchfield

Summer Benediction, 1951

Sale Date: March 25, 1994

Auction Closed

The Silver Stream, 1935–1937

Charles Burchfield

The Silver Stream, 1935–1937

Sale Date: March 17, 1994

Auction Closed

Summer Morning ('Dutchman's', Salem), 1917

Charles Burchfield

Summer Morning ('Dutchman's', Salem), 1917

Sale Date: March 17, 1994

Auction Closed

Summer Benediction, 1951–1952

Charles Burchfield

Summer Benediction, 1951–1952

Sale Date: February 10, 1994

Auction Closed

POST OFFICE, WASHINGTONVILLE, OHIO

Charles Burchfield

POST OFFICE, WASHINGTONVILLE, OHIO

Sale Date: December 9, 1993

Auction Closed

Summer benediction, 1951–1952

Charles Burchfield

Summer benediction, 1951–1952

Sale Date: November 19, 1993

Auction Closed

Lazy afternoon, 1949

Charles Burchfield

Lazy afternoon, 1949

Sale Date: October 10, 1993

Auction Closed

THE HOP VINE, 1916

Charles Burchfield

THE HOP VINE, 1916

Sale Date: September 23, 1993

Auction Closed

SUNLIGHT AND WIND, 1950

Charles Burchfield

SUNLIGHT AND WIND, 1950

Sale Date: September 22, 1993

Auction Closed

English (US)

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