Watertower and Queen Anne’s Lace, 1917

Provenance

Dr. and Mrs. George Schillinger, West Seneca and Williamsville, New York
Sotheby’s, New York, Sale of September 21, 1984, Lot 191
Transco Energy Company, 1984
Casper Fine Arts & Appraisals, Inc., New York, New York.
Private collection, acquired from the above, 1992
Sale, Freeman’s, Chicago, Illinois, December 7, 2025, lot 73

Exhibited

Burchfield Center, Buffalo, Buffalo State College, “Works of Charles Burchfield,” October 21 – December 9, 1979

Related Works

Queen Anne’s Lace, 1957, watercolor brush and black ink, and graphite pencil on white wove paper, 10 5/8 x 16¾ inches, monogramed and dated lower left: CWB / 1957; The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan

Noontide in Late May, 1917, opaque and transparent watercolor, and graphite pencil on paper, 22 x 18 inches; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York

Note

In 1917, known as the “golden year” of his career, Charles Burchfield experienced a burst of creativity in his childhood home of Salem, Ohio, producing the works that would help define him as an astonishingly original American visionary. During this year, he completed more paintings than ever before, using the midwestern landscape to express universal emotions and moods. His imaginative technique involved using watercolor with a dry-brush method and symbolic visual motifs to convey not just what he saw in nature, but its moods, forces, and even sounds, creating landscapes that fused realism with expression. Watertower and Queen Anne’s Lace demonstrates Burchfield’s concern with industrial expansion while infusing the scene with organic forms. The soft vegetation in the foreground contrasts with the distant industrial buildings under the moon, yet Burchfield’s lyrical composition brings the scene into visual and emotional balance.