Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967), Winter Landscape with Trees, 1916; Watercolor on paper, 11 x 20 inches, Image courtesy of the Charles E. Burchfield Archives at the Burchfield Penney.
Last night the moon hazed by snow mist, was surrounded by a weird circle, the lower half of which was lost in the density of the horizon - seemingly then like a rainbow, caused by moonlight striking snow!
Last night’s promise was fulfilled today in a wild spasmodic blizzard from out of the west. At morning the snow was thick and soggy, but hourly the wind grew cold until at darkness the snow was star-flakes.
Again I am reading the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. And each time they grow more wonderful. After glympsing “The Greatest thing on Earth” they are doubly beautiful by contrast, like being transported from a soggy rainy day in the city, to a sun-shot morning in a woods.
Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, January 2, 1915