Charles Burchfield 1893-1967

Dr. and Mrs. Irving Levitt, Southfield, Michigan
Kennedy Galleries, New York
Acquired from the above, 1970

Spokane, Washington, World's Fair Exposition, Our Land, Our Sky, Our Water, May-November, 1974
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Museum of Art , Philadelphia Collects Art Since 1940, September-November 1986

Joseph S. Trovato, Charles Burchfield: Catalogue of Paintings in Public and Private Collections, Utica, New York, 1970, no. 1007, p. 218

Very good condition; unframed: mounted on board, pin marks along all four edges of board.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

In the 1930s and early 1940s, when Charles Burchfield was producing bold industrial scenes and landscapes steeped in realism, his personal diaries reveal the artist's mounting nostalgia for a more innocent, unfiltered experience of nature. In a 1932 journal entry he contemplates a renewed relationship with the natural world of his youth: "The rhapsodic utterings of that period expressive of my pure unattached joy in a marvelous world fills me now with unutterable sadness and longing—almost a terror. Could I but once again walk in those lush meadows of wonder" (quoted in The Inlander, 1982, p. 192). By 1943 Burchfield's inner struggle began to bear fruit as his watercolors recalled the exuberant expressionism that marked his early works. In Queen Anne's Lace Burchfield paints the clusters of delicate white flowers, which stretch back to the horizon, in wildly exaggerated proportions. The flowers' inflated dimensions and the swirling brushwork, particularly evident in the blue sky, set a whimsical tone. The dream-like quality of the work is heightened by the perspectival variation, as the colossal umbels are shown from several vantage points simultaneously. For inspiration, Burchfield spent many hours sketching in the woods around his home located in the suburbs of Buffalo, New York. Details, such as the central purple flower and the spider webs in the attenuated branches of the trees, are reminders of Burchfield's close observation of nature and his ability to transcribe his unique experience of it onto paper.

Matthew Baigell described the landscapes of this period as "some of the finest celebrations of landscape moods ever done by an American artist. They depended not on particular tradition or style, old or new, and they neither reflected nor activated any mythic images of American art or life. They marked, instead, one of the unique adventures in American art by an artist who, in burrowing deeper into his own soul, brought forth images that repeatedly strike chords of common recognition. He became a fantasist for the public, creating entirely personal pictures, but ones readily understandable and identifiable" (Charles Burchfield, 1976, p. 169).