Charles Ephraim Burchfield (1893-1967)
Lot 72Property from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Straus

Charles Ephraim Burchfield (1893-1967)

Winter Afterglow

Closed7 August 2020

Price Realised

USD 43,750

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Charles Ephraim Burchfield (1893-1967)
Winter Afterglow
signed and dated 'Chas Burchfield/-1917-' (lower left)–dated again, inscribed with title and '"House and trees in the grip of/winter–the house seems to crouch/in fear; and the trees writhe in agony/against the twilight sky."' (on a label affixed to the reverse)
watercolor and gouache on joined paper
20 x 21 ½ in. (50.8 x 54.6 cm.)
Executed in 1917.

The artist.
Frank K.M. Rehn Gallery, New York.
Acquired by the late owners from the above, by 1952.

Specialist note

We would like to thank Nancy Weekly, Burchfield Scholar at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, for her assistance with cataloguing this lot.

Nancy Weekly writes of the present work, "Winter Afterglow is the first artwork listed in Charles E. Burchfield’s Painting Index, Vol. II, no. 1, which was donated to Burchfield Penney Art Center by his widow, Mrs. C. E. Burchfield, in 1970. In this listing, which includes a black and white photograph, he noted that the house was on Green Street and Garfield Avenue (later renamed N. Lincoln Avenue) in Salem, Ohio. He also recorded that it had been sold by Rehn to John W. Straus. Notably, Mr. Straus was the first Harvard undergraduate allowed to write his honors thesis on a living artist. His 1942 catalogue of Burchfield’s paintings was also noted in Joseph S. Trovato’s 1970 updated catalogue for the Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute." (unpublished letter, 2020)