Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

The Parade (1932-34), though not painted from an elevated site, still provides an interesting perspective. The subject, made during the Depression, is "a communist unemployment parade" that passed by the bus stop where Charles and Bertha Burchfield had arrived in Buffalo from their home in Gardenville. It is one of few overtly political images he painted. In it, mounted policemen watch lines of marching men and women from under a massive bridge, its cracked concrete signifying the fractured social structure that parallels the era's economic despair. Here the perspective is similar to looking through binoculars backwards-the massive bridge arches with converging, shadowed walls focus our sight toward two apertures that reveal day-lit, though barely discernible, marchers lining the streets.

The superimposed grid shows how Charles Burchfield precisely transcribed small studies into larger–scaled drawings that would provide structure for layered watercolor paintings.