Burchfield Botanicals

Between the years 1908 and 1911 Charles E. Burchfield created nearly 500 botanical sketches that show the different wildflowers and plants he found in the forests and fields around his childhood home in Salem, Ohio. Using books from the local library, Burchfield identified and documented these plants along with the location where he found them. These sketches, which to a large extent predate the artist’s journals, are an important document of Burchfield’s early fascination with the natural world.

The exhibition Burchfield Botanicals will feature Burchfield masterworks, paired with these botanical sketches and objects from the Marchand Wildflower Collection at the Buffalo Museum of Science. Paul and George Marchand created the Hall of Plant Life in 1936. Paul Marchand, well known throughout the world for his meticulous work created “scientifically accurate and artistically superb casts of flowers and mushrooms” as well as dioramas for the museum throughout his career.

The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Garden Walk Buffalo, the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens, The Buffalo Museum of Science and the National Garden Festival. It will open on Friday, June 13, 2014 in the Anthony J. Sisti and John R. Oishei Foundation Galleries at the Burchfield Penney Art Center and run through October. Programs and events will be take place at multiple locations throughout the city of Buffalo.