Mid-Afternoon

Details

Charles Ephraim Burchfield (1893-1967)
Mid-Afternoon
signed and dated 'Charles Burchfield/1916' (lower left)—signed and dated again (lower right)—inscribed with title and dated again 'July 6, 1916' (on the backing)
watercolor and pencil on paper laid down on board
14 x 20 in. (35.6 x 50.8 cm.)
Executed in 1916.

Provenance

The artist.
Charles Arthur Burchfield, Poughkeepsie, New York, son of the above, by descent.
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York.
Private collection, Washington, D.C.
Christie's, New York, 16 March 1990, lot 314, sold by the above.
Acquired by the present owner from the above.

Literature

“Charles E. Burchfield: The Early Years 1915-1929," Art News, vol. 78, October 1977, p. 12, illustrated.
Apollo, no. 106, October 1977, p. 3, frontispiece illustration.

Exhibited

New York, Kennedy Galleries, Inc., Charles E. Burchfield: The Early Years 1915-1929, October 13-November 12, 1977, no. 4, illustrated.
Akron, Ohio, Akron Art Institute, Charles E. Burchfield: Ohio Years, March 19-April 30,1978.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

William Haydock

whaydock@christies.com +212 707 5938

Lot Essay

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

On the same day he executed Mid-Afternoon, the artist recorded in his journal: "How the hot noon sun pours down on the glaring crimson roses./A heat withered leaf falling in a sun-hazed forest –/Stars zigzagging above the lightning -lit horizon with its jagged border of black trees –/Poplars dying in the noon heat-haze —(Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, Vol. 27B “Extra,” July 6, 1916, p. 66)

More from American Art

View All