Blackbirds

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Artist/Maker Charles E. Burchfield (American, 1893 - 1967)

DateMarch 1916

MediumWatercolor and graphite on paper

DimensionsSheet: 11 15/16 × 8 15/16 in. (30.3 × 22.7 cm) Frame: 20 7/8 × 16 7/8 × 2 in. (53 × 42.9 × 5.1 cm)

Credit LineBequest of Daniel W. Dietrich II, Class of 1964

Object number2016.1.1

Not on view

DescriptionCharles Burchfield’s love of nature is apparent in his watercolors; his semi-abstract landscapes of central Ohio and upstate New York present a very personal, even spiritual or mystical, view. “It is the romantic side of the real world that I portray,” the artist once wrote. “My things are poems—I hope.” Rather than presenting a fantasy, however, Burchfield had a deep understanding of the natural world and was familiar with the essays and poetry on that subject by Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and John Burroughs. Burchfield painted both Blackbirds and Spring Rain (cat. no. 62) in the spring of 1916, when he was preparing to graduate from the Cleveland School (now Institute) of Art. There, in late 1915, he had been introduced to the work of the Japanese printmakers Hiroshige and Hokusai and thus to ukiyo-e color woodblock prints. Elements borrowed from those compositions—stylized forms, decorative patterning, and a flattening of the picture plane—are apparent in his watercolors. Drawings related to both compositions appear in the artist’s sketchbooks of this period (now in the collection of the Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY), including some dated March 2016 that document his explorations in simplifying the forms of tree branches, foliage, and birds along with diagrams in which he seems to have been working out how to depict reflections. Spring Rain may have been painted from the artist’s living quarters, looking toward his backyard. Another watercolor made earlier in the year, Backyard, Late Winter, shows the same view from a slightly different vantage point. The artist used gouache to depict driving rain in a number of watercolors of this period—a device that repeats itself here. Both watercolors were bequeathed to the Wellin in 2016 by Daniel W. Dietrich II, Class of 1964, a staunch supporter of the arts on campus. (SOURCE: Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS, 2017)

Collections

American Art

Additional Details

Exhibition History 2017
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Innovative Approaches, Honored Traditions: The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Five Years, Highlights from the Permanent Collection," September 9 - December 10, 2017 (cat. no. 61, illus.);

1970
New York, NY (Bernard Danenberg Galleries). "Interpretations of Nature: an Exhibition and Sale of Early Watercolors by Charles Burchfield," January 20 - February 7, 1970 (cat no. 7, illustrated p. 3).

Provenance 2016: Hamilton College (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College), by bequest of Daniel W. Dietrich II;
date unknown - 2016: Daniel W. Dietrich II;
1970: with Danenberg Galleries.

Published References Katherine D. Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS: THE RUTH AND ELMER WELLIN MUSEUM OF ART AT FIVE YEARS, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION (Clinton, NY: Wellin Museum of Art, 2017), p. 152.

Signature Signed and dated "C Burchfield - 1916" at lower right in pencil.

Inscribed "March 1916" on verso at center in pencil.