Sunflower Study
by Charles Burchfield (1893–1967)15⅞ x 10¼ inches (sight size)
Estate stamp lower right: C-139
Provenance
Kennedy Galleries, New York, New York
Private collection, New York, acquired from above, ca. 1999
Related Works
Sunflower Studies, 1917, graphite on wove paper; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio
Dancing Sunflowers, 1950, watercolor, 29⅛ x 29½ inches; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
Sunflowers, 1960, crayon on paper, 22 x 17 inches; Burchfield Penney Art Center at SUNY Buffalo State, New York
Note: Sunflowers became a repeat motif for Charles Burchfield. Throughout his career the artist depicted the recognizable flower in a variety of scenes and mediums. In one of his journals Burchfield describes, “Along the creek here wild sunflowers abounded—they overran everything and seemed ever on the point of even overcoming the trees themselves. A single flower is odd. The drooping petals give the center an appearance of jutting forcibly upward.”[1]
[1] J. Benjamin Townsend, ed., Charles Burchfield’s Journals: The Poetry of Place (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), 228.
Artist Biography
Watercolorist with Romantic Realist Vision of American Life
By Amy Spencer
Best known for his romantic watercolors, Burchfield developed a unique style, swinging between realism and fantasy, to express his profound respect for the American landscape.
I. Biography
II. Chronology
III. Collections
IV. Exhibitions
V. Memberships
VI. Notes
VII. Suggested Resources
I. Biography
Charles Ephraim Burchfield is celebrated for his visionary paintings of the American