Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967), Black Tree (Gloomy Tree), 1917; Watercolor, gouache, and pencil on paper, 14 x 11 inches; Courtesy of the DC Moore Gallery, New York
In bed, —the lightning increases in brilliance, almost continuous—the wind rises, the poplar tree outside my window, a writhing tortured black many fingered mass, with wild lightning curling around it—(trees—crazy black trees shapes, outlines with phosphorescent yellow and emerald, against the wind white)—
I felt all the thrill of 1915.
Charles Burchfield, June 29, 1945