Burchfield: A perfectionist
These slate-gray days of late-November, when a few stubborn leaves still cling to the trees and the rain turns gradually to snow, would have made up one of Charles E. Burchfield's favorite times of the year.
The prolific watercolorist was fascinated with the subtle shifts in color, foliage and atmosphere particular to Western New York, moments in time that can't be classified as merely autumnal or wintry but that lie — like the painter's works themselves — in a happily transitional category all their own.
Burchfield was born in Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio … a two and a half hour drive from Buffalo — on April 9, 1893. After the death of his father in 1898, he and his mother moved 70 miles south to Salem, Ohio. After graduating from high school at the head of his class, Burchfield won a scholarship to the Cleveland School of Art (now the Cleveland Institute of Art), where he studied for four years (from 1912-16) under painter Henry Z. Keller, whom he later cited as a major influence.
Around 1916, Burchfield began to paint what would become his major early works, all heavily influenced by nature, as well as by the Chinese scroll paintings that piqued his interest at art school. He also developed a kind of symbolic vocabulary that he would use for the rest of his career, which he dubbed "conventions for abstract thought." But while the thoughts behind Burchfield's epic, magical landscapes may have been abstract, the paintings themselves contained a romantic realism that vibrated with the artist's peculiar sensitivity to the shifting modulations of nature.
"They were fantastic water colors that visualized the song of insects and re-created childhood fears, like fear of the dark," wrote former News Critic Jean Reeves of Burchfield's early work. "In them, flowers had faces, trees gesticulated and corn stalks danced."
Starting in 1919, Burchfield spent a yearlong stint in the army, based at Camp Jackson, S.C. He moved to Buffalo in 1921 to work as a designer at M.H. Birge & Sons, a wallpaper company where he would remain employed until 1929. His work in that period, starting around 1926, began to focus on what was termed "the American Scene." Burchfield's paintings in this period … dark urban street scenes, renditions of Buffalo's industrial plants and grain elevators that seemed to owe much to the painter's good friend Edward Hopper — earned him further acclaim in New York and around the country.
This period was relatively short-lived, and by the early '40s, Burchfield had returned to the singular landscapes that he had captured so whimsically in his Ohio youth. Only now, Burchfield's canvases became larger, more profound and in certain ways darker and more mysterious. Landscape was where Burchfield's heart belonged.
Wrote News Critic Emeritus Richard Huntington: "Burchfield was utterly possessed by landscape. It caused in him an ecstatic sense of awe and joy; it represented the lost innocence of his childhood and always seemed pervaded by childish dreams. But landscape also terrified him, sending him into dark moods where trees took on clawlike shapes and ordinary windows, lit up at night, became sinister glowing eyes."
Burchfield was a perfectionist in painting, endlessly sketching, revising, erasing, adding and subtracting from his canvases. He would often abandon paintings for years, only to return to them later … when the weather outside was perfectly attuned to his intentions … adding new strips of paper upon which he would extend sky or ground until he had reached the perfect image. And often, as Burchfield's many uncompleted canvases will attest, this never happened.
Since the artist's death Jan. 10, 1967, his reputation has continued to grow. There was a time when his legacy was in danger of being assigned to the meager ranks of American provincialism in art, an idea Burchfield himself detested. But thanks to the growth of the Burchfield Penney Art Center and a general appreciation for his unique, almost anti-modernist aesthetic, Burchfield has stood the test of time better than any watercolorist of his era.
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Reader comments