Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967), Night of the Equinox, 1917-1955; watercolor, ink, gouache, and charcoal on paper mounted on paperboard, 40 1/8 x 52 5/16 inches; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation
The dream –
I dreamt [it] was the close of a day in February or March.
Spring was in the air, it seemed like an equinox storm that was hastening the dusk – I started out for a walk; the afterglow seemed to tinge the sky for a moment, and song sparrows sang to the sunrise.
In the rainy dusk as I came home I composed rare weirdly discordant music for a strange scene which showed the gradual dusk in a fearful woods. At the climax a slim maiden glided out clad in simple white, the music was a quaint tinkle-tinkle.
Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, February 1, 1917