Charles Burchfield
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President Lyndon B. Johnson once proclaimed Charles Ephraim Burchfield as an “artist to America.” The watercolorist’s landscapes were a love letter to nature and the world he grew up in and around.
Charles Ephraim Burchfield was born in Ohio in 1893 and attended the Cleveland School of Art from 1912 to 1916, developing his dream-like style. After graduating, he served in the army and, after his discharge, moved to Buffalo, New York, to work as a wallpaper designer. He married Bertha Kenreich soon after, with whom he had five children.
The artist became fascinated with the urban life of Buffalo, abandoning his previously more dream-like style for one closer to naturalistic observation. In 1929, the Rehn Galleries in New York City began to sponsor him, allowing Burchfield to focus on his art full-time. He also developed a close friendship with new artist Edward Hopper.
Later in life, Burchfield decided to “reconstruct” his old style, returning to painting spiritualized landscapes. In 1966, Buffalo State College founded the Charles Burchfield Center. he would die a month later, in January, 1967.
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<p>This painting is among Burchfield’s earliest paintings, in which he portrayed his hometown and surrounding area with a fresh and responsive eye. The artist reacted deeply to things he knew well, and he attempted to convey more than just a fleeting visual impression of familiar scenes. Like other paintings of this early phase of Burchfield’s career, "Moonlight Over the Arbor" has a direct, uncomplicated innocence. Burchfield created a vertical composition of moonlight that is evocative of a summer night. He emphasized the mood of the scene: its qualities of light, the feel of the season and weather, and even the sense of sound—or silence—that might be associated with his subject. Moonlight Over the Arbor is painted energetically, with an emphasis on pattern and two-dimensional effect that reveals the artist’s knowledge of Japanese art. The only implication of movement, leaves rustling in a light breeze, comes from the foliage’s rhythmical brushwork. All else is still and quiet, as befits a summer night.<br />
– Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.</p>
<p>SKU: 47356<br />Creator: Charles Burchfield<br />Date: 1916<br />Original Medium: Watercolor and gouache over graphite on paper<br />Original Size: 19 1/4 x 13 1/2 in.<br />Location: The Phillips Collection</p>
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