Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967), Storm Over Irondale, 1920; watercolor on paper, 24 1/4 x 29 1/4 inches; Image from the Burchfield Penney Art Center Archives
After a good dinner at Enus Moon’s I got my wheel and started out for Irondale. This trip was a source of wonder & delight to me, the increasingly high hills being the cause; it was midafternoon; there was a tremendous calm in the air; the tall white sun seemed motionless; Hammondsville was like a look into the colonial days of Ohio, with its old primitive buildings & sleeping inhabitants –
Irondale surpassed all my expectations. Strange squatty buildings and immense brickworks set in among huge bulky bluffs, some bare, others crowded, others with raw yellow gashes, & all of them crowded with stark dead trees.
Charles E. Burchfield, August 1920