.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Charles Burchfield, a celebrated watercolorist, is perhaps one of the last true naturalists of the nineteenth century. Burchfield had a unique gift of capturing the "whole" essence of his environment within his paintings. In the colorful and expressive Windblown Hemlock, the wind and sky wrestle with the landscape, wisping tree limbs and storm clouds scatter across the horizon, alluding to an impending storm and approaching change in weather. Burchfield's technique of expressing movement and even sound allow the viewer to imagine the rustling of branches, and the smell of sweet earth and fragrant summer blossoms stirred and tossed by the hand of nature--the picture comes alive through Burchfield's brushwork and style.
Burchfield is said to have changed his focus from realism to expressionism in the later years between the 1950's and 1960's. Matthew Baigell has written on the synthesis of Burchfield's traditional landscape art with the beginnings of modern abstract expressionism: "One sees trees, insects, and birds; feels the wind; and hears the forest sounds. Each of these elements is isolated, experienced for a few moments, and then mixed with the other elements. The time sequences for each are then stretched out and simultaneously intensified and presented as if they all occurred as Burchfield was able to respond to them at a single instant." (Charles Burchfield, New York,1976, p. 175).
Burchfield is said to have changed his focus from realism to expressionism in the later years between the 1950's and 1960's. Matthew Baigell has written on the synthesis of Burchfield's traditional landscape art with the beginnings of modern abstract expressionism: "One sees trees, insects, and birds; feels the wind; and hears the forest sounds. Each of these elements is isolated, experienced for a few moments, and then mixed with the other elements. The time sequences for each are then stretched out and simultaneously intensified and presented as if they all occurred as Burchfield was able to respond to them at a single instant." (Charles Burchfield, New York,1976, p. 175).