Charles Ephraim Burchfield

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

In the lower right, Charles E. Burchfield wrote the title “M,” date, and notations: “M / 7-21-15 / Foreground trees Dk / BG –.” The title “M” is typical of his 1915 sketches, especially his “All-Day Sketches,” which he lettered alphabetically in order of production. This was the thirteenth sketch of the day. He planned to combine these quick sketches in a larger format painting that might show the progression of weather events during the day. The color notations were to remind him that the “Foreground Trees” were “Dark Blue Green.” Burchfield never created time-lapse paintings—that is, until 1943. He had been inspired by Chinese scroll paintings that he saw as a guard at the Hatch Galleries in Cleveland in 1914, working while a student at the Cleveland School of Art. He graduated in 1916. The Burchfield Penney Art Center’s Charles E. Burchfield Archives contain two lists of these sketches made during the summer of 1915. This one, “M” is listed under the date of “July 21” as:

VERSO
(M) – Four thunderheads rolling along the horizon
 
The billowing storm clouds are evident on the right side of the composition.