Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

Old House in the Swamp, 1952, Conté crayon, ink and ink wash on paper, 9 3/8 x 11 ¾ inches (sight) was inscribed and signed by the artist in pencil under the drawing: “OLD HOUSE IN THE SWAMP – TO THE SEIGFREDS FROM THE BURCHFIELDS —   – Charles E. Burchfield –”

It is a study for, or transcription of Old House in the Swamp, 1952, watercolor on paper, 29 1/2 x 37 5/8 inches, Collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966.

Frogs croaking and other swamp noises filter through the air from a murky swamp by a ramshackle house with a sagging roof and dislodged clapboards. Long abandoned, the house glances with pixyish window eyes to the pungent landscape where the trees and plants are animated and hidden creatures make their presence known. --Nancy Weekly