Sold
Lincoln Avenue at Main Street, Salem, Ohio, 1916
20⅝ x 25 inches (sight size)
Estate stamp lower right; on verso: Lincoln Avenue at Main St., / Salem, Ohio / January, 1916
Provenance
The artist
Estate of above
Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries, New York, New York
Mr. and Mrs. Richard M. Cohen, by 1970
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, New York, 1972
Private collection, Connecticut, acquired from above, 1972
Sale, Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers, Milford, Connecticut, October 28, 2021, lot 52, from above
Exhibited
New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut, Sound and Silence: Charles E. Burchfield (1893–1967) / Edward Hopper (1882–1967), November 15–December 30, 1973, no. 2
Literature
Joseph S. Trovato, Charles Burchfield: Catalogue of Paintings in Public and Private Collections (Utica, NY: Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, 1970), 38, 40, no. 59.
Charles B. Ferguson, Sound and Silence: Charles E. Burchfield (1893–1967) / Edward Hopper (1882–1967) (New Britain, CT: New Britain Museum of American Art, 1973).
Note
This work bears the Estate stamp no. 18. The artist’s journals from January 13, 1916, the day this work was created, read:
Yesterday – A warm thaw day – Morning a burst of windy white sunshine – glittering rivulets running everywhere – streets blinding – houses & trees black silhouettes – Poplars at Lincoln – horses standing in blinding spot –[1]
Burchfield grew up in Salem, Ohio. In 1916, he was awarded a scholarship to study at the National Academy of Design in New York. However, the artist felt especially connected to his hometown, so much so that, according to scholar Joseph S. Trovato,
Even when he went to study at the National Academy of Design, he was seemingly untouched by the contemporary New York art scene. Indeed, he was so homesick for the sights of Salem, Ohio, his childhood home, that he returned there after only two months in New York…It was during his Salem days that he was most productive. From 1915 to 1920 he did almost half of his total number of paintings – the best of which are among the most original achievements in American art.[2]
[1] Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, vol. 27A, January 13, 1916, 56.
[2] Joseph S. Trovato, Charles Burchfield: Catalogue of Paintings in Public and Private Collections (Utica, NY: Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, 1970), 8.
