Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

In 1930, Charles Burchfield painted a double portrait of his daughters Martha and Catherine sitting on a log. Thirty years later, he decided that each daughter should have her own portrait, so he sliced the painting in half, remounted the original, and added paper so he could expand the landscape setting. Recomposed from the right side, Catherine is seated on the log holding a bouquet of bright yellow dandelions. In the distance stand a flowering chestnut tree and pink dogwoods. Recomposed from the left side, Martha is seated beneath a flowering dogwood tree holding a swamp rose mallow. (Nancy Weekly, Charles E. Burchfield: Family Tree, 2014)

Burchfield created portraits of his children around 1930. The eldest daughter’s painting, Portrait Study in a Spring Landscape (Mary Alice), has an unfinished background landscape. Martha and Catherine were originally painted together seated on a log, but in 1960 he cut the portrait in half and expanded each composition so each daughter could have her own painting. Martha's became known as Portrait Study in a Spring Landscape (Martha) and her sister's became Artist’s Daughter—Catherine. Son Charles Arthur was just an infant, having been born on June 1, 1929. His portrait, Rainy Day, was painted in 1935. Information about Sally's portrait is not available. (Nancy Weekly, 2025)