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

Charles Burchfield (1,152 results)

A GRAY DAY IN MARCH, 1916

Charles Burchfield

A GRAY DAY IN MARCH, 1916

Sale Date: September 22, 1993

Auction Closed

WHAT'S THE USE ANYWAY

Charles Burchfield

WHAT'S THE USE ANYWAY

Sale Date: September 18, 1993

Auction Closed

Road to the Casino

Charles Burchfield

Road to the Casino

Sale Date: August 11, 1993

Auction Closed

Cicada song in September, 1956–1956

Charles Burchfield

Cicada song in September, 1956–1956

Sale Date: May 27, 1993

Auction Closed

EVENING, 1916

Charles Burchfield

EVENING, 1916

Sale Date: May 26, 1993

Auction Closed

THE TREE-LINED STREET, 1916

Charles Burchfield

THE TREE-LINED STREET, 1916

Sale Date: May 14, 1993

Auction Closed

COUNTRY HOUSE, 1915

Charles Burchfield

COUNTRY HOUSE, 1915

Sale Date: May 14, 1993

Auction Closed

OLD COTTAGE IN MAY, 1933

Charles Burchfield

OLD COTTAGE IN MAY, 1933

Sale Date: May 4, 1993

Auction Closed

FANTASIES

Charles Burchfield

Sale Date: March 31, 1993

Auction Closed

MELTING SNOW, 1932

Charles Burchfield

MELTING SNOW, 1932

Sale Date: March 10, 1993

Auction Closed

WINTER AFTERNOON (BROADWAY, SALEM), 1920

Charles Burchfield

WINTER AFTERNOON (BROADWAY, SALEM), 1920

Sale Date: March 10, 1993

Auction Closed

SUNFLOWERS

Charles Burchfield

Sale Date: February 7, 1993

Auction Closed

SUNFLOWERS

Charles Burchfield

Sale Date: December 12, 1992

Auction Closed

THE HAYMOW, SALEM, 1920

Charles Burchfield

THE HAYMOW, SALEM, 1920

Sale Date: December 4, 1992

Auction Closed

BETWEEN TWO WILLOWS, 1918

Charles Burchfield

BETWEEN TWO WILLOWS, 1918

Sale Date: December 3, 1992

Auction Closed

TREES, 1917

Charles Burchfield

Sale Date: December 3, 1992

Auction Closed

SUN SETTING IN A BANK OF SMOKE, 1917

Charles Burchfield

SUN SETTING IN A BANK OF SMOKE, 1917

Sale Date: December 3, 1992

Auction Closed

PUSSYWILLOWS IN THE RAIN

Charles Burchfield

PUSSYWILLOWS IN THE RAIN

Sale Date: December 3, 1992

Auction Closed

WATERTOWER AND QUEEN ANNE'S LACE, 1917

Charles Burchfield

WATERTOWER AND QUEEN ANNE'S LACE, 1917

Sale Date: December 3, 1992

Auction Closed

EARLY MORNING, 1917

Charles Burchfield

EARLY MORNING, 1917

Sale Date: October 19, 1992

Auction Closed

CHESTNUT TREES (FALLEN CHESTNUT BLOOM), 1916

Charles Burchfield

CHESTNUT TREES (FALLEN CHESTNUT BLOOM), 1916

Sale Date: October 19, 1992

Auction Closed

UNTITLED (2) , 1959

Charles Burchfield

UNTITLED (2) , 1959

Sale Date: September 25, 1992

Auction Closed

CLOUDS AT SUNSET, 1917

Charles Burchfield

CLOUDS AT SUNSET, 1917

Sale Date: September 24, 1992

Auction Closed

Sunset, 1915

Charles Burchfield

Sale Date: September 24, 1992

Auction Closed

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