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Charles E. Burchfield
Old House and Elm Tree, 1933-40
Throughout his long career as a painter, Burchfield looked closely at houses and depicted them as a frequent theme. And, to his imaginative eye, the houses stared back. "As we walk down a street," the artist mused in his journal, "we have the feeling that the houses are looking at us; they glance up the street long before we come to them, and follow us brazenly as we go along." In his work, Burchfield pictures an imposing dwelling just after a soaking spring rain. Dominant gray hues convey a dreary, damp cold. Still, a gentle light breaks through thinning clouds, and a soft canopy of new leaves shimmers overhead, suggesting fairer skies to come.
As a youth in rural Ohio, Burchfield developed a flat decorative style to picture the sights, smells, and sounds of the natural world. In the 1930s, he came to prominence as an American-scene watercolorist; this striking painting is representative of his work of that era. By midcentury, Burchfield had returned to painting rhapsodic nature-themed images, a passion he maintained through his final years. |