Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, December 16, 1938

Working all day on pictures I am giving away (“Spring Afternoon” 1935 to Valentine; “The Bell-tower – 1932 to Carl Wild; and “Road in Sunlight & Shadow” 1936 to Shaffers).

Walk before supper – notes The first time in weeks that I really see the landscape, everywhere I see beauty — Such long periods of absolute blank frighten me.

Exhortative notes:

A – You have been repeating yourself over & over. It is time to do things of the spirit. (The Fifth Symphony (Beethoven) motive for March) — These things must be done in the most unacademic, unrealistic manner —

It will take hard striving, for you have depended so long on working in front of an actual scene.

B – Too often are your landscapes restricted to moody interpretations of a single tree, a hill, a bit of road–

Seize a large landscape in one eye-movement, accenting here & there, as in “The Bottoms” –

C You are too formal in your approach to your work — There is not enough gayety, casualness — you do not take your subjects from life (too often they are still lifes) –

Such as – a roadside picnic –

A busy street

Boats moving about in a harbor—

and all these things should be done in the most free, calligraphic manner (as in the 1917 interiors).

D – It does you no good to be oppressed by the weight of your guilt – Great as it seems, you must somehow carry on in spite of it. [He is probably feeling guilty that he does not want to be affiliated with organized religion and join a church]. While yours is a mental affliction, you should try to think of it as a trial similar to Beethoven’s deafness, or Stevenson’s tuberculosis etc. and strive to achieve great things in spite of it. The only way to counter-act it is with work — work — work — work!

Create in your work the goodness and innocence and beauty you lack — escape, in creating the despair that goes with your weaknesses [(Burchfield note circa 1955: Many years later — I learned that such “mental sins are not uncommon to many people, and the only remedy is Christ’s atonement)]

E – In a landscape show the warring of two thoughts or natures

a — the hideousness of a foul soul –

b – and pure unalloyed beauty of God in Nature.]

Evening, playing the 2nd, 3rd, & 4th Movements of the Sibelius 6th and the 3rd Movement of his Quartet — the last, the great 3rd Movement, has all the anguish of a soul in agony that we find in Beethoven so often — in the work of Sibelius it stands alone. Tonight, it speaks to me directly, and seems to express my own despair.

Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, December 16, 1938