Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967), Deserted Miner's Home, 1918 (signed and dated 'Chas Burchfield/4/27-1918-' (lower right); Watercolor, gouache and pencil on paper laid down on board, 18 x 24¾ inches; Burchfield Penney Art Center, Purchased with support from the Collector’s Club, John and Carol Kociela, and the Burchfield Penney Art Acquisition Endowment, 2014
Nov 9, 1917 -
I was painting down by the railroad, on the hill above were the foreigner’s shacks; a locomotive, the kind that shifts back + forth like animals, shrieked; the [reichering] over the town was startling; the engine began a deep vibrating boom that shook the earth + then stopped. It was very quiet, from the chimney’s smoke went straight up into the hazy air –
This is the powerful freakish poetry of the town.
Charles E. Burchfield, November 9, 1917