Charles Burchfield: A Sense of Wonder

Charles Burchfield - November Sun Emerging - 1956-59 - Watercolor on paper - 37 3/4 x 31 7/8 in. - Private collection (click photo for larger image)Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967) was an American painter whose work ranged from the realistic to the highly mystical. During the 1920s and ‘30s, Burchfield’s work emphasized the loneliness and harshness of American cities and small towns, rendered in stark realism. However, after 1940, he returned to exploring personal interpretations of nature, which had been a preoccupation earlier in his career. His later works were painted with “a sense of wonder” at its (nature’s) color, movement, and forms.

There are a number of Burchfield paintings on view at MoMA, the Whitney, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York—as well as in the Smithsonian and the Phillips Art Collection, in Washington, D.C.

Burchfield’s work is well worth your attention!