Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967), The Glory of Spring, 1934-55; watercolor and chalk on paper, 43 x 54 inches; Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, Gift of Elam Miller, Class of 1928, 77.38
Along Ellsworth Rd. sketching – I entered the strange woods It was like a climax in music – among the ghostly beeches the spring beauties in the curled leaves; a big hollow; great rotting fallen logs – call of redbird, gloom of night falling – a pink flush in sky, followed by a snowfall – all at once I emerge on a high bank, below the meander strangely light + I hear its rapids.
Homewards – Singing of telegraph; luminous horizon – light spot in sky - I imagined I had gone out in the summer sketching, + stayed out all night to see the morning, I saw the sun rise over a valley, before me a splashing waterfall – The town throws a light on the sky, which lights up the dusty road –
Charles E. Burchfield, April 14, 1917