Charles E. Burchfield, About Solitude

The beginning of this picture was a small watercolor (27 x 20) painted in Bedford Glens, South of Cleveland, Ohio in 1918. The original watercolor has been incorporated in the final painting –

Subsequent studies for the painting were made at Rock City, south west of Olean, and the Cattaraugus gorge east of Gowanda and the gorge at Letchworth Park – the material freely treated. The aim here has been to present a study in contrasts in nature – the austere and the joyous. The former represented by the forbidding “frowning” cliffs, and the ominous cave, the latter by the upshooting, bristling trees and the sunlit tumultuous waterfall, all bathed in the brilliant yellow sunshine of early spring. A further note of gayety is added by placing a willow in bloom in the very midst of the more grim material

Charles Burchfield on his masterwork Solitude