Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

In his youth, Burchfield abandoned but did not destroy some of his watercolors, particularly those from 1917, which he referred to as his golden year. He trusted some had potential, exhibiting “vividness and early spontaneity.” In 1943, seeking to inject that youthful spirit into his mature work, Burchfield started resurrecting the most promising of these by expanding the size of the paper and reworking compositions. The Sphinx and the Milky Way is one such effort. Burchfield envelopes the viewer with multisensory sensations, recreating his childhood experience of wonder and fear, standing in the nighttime garden at the family home in Salem, Ohio, listening to insects, breathing in fragrant summertime aromas of earth and flowers, and witnessing an awe-inspiring starlight display. The sphinx of the title is front and center, a sphinx- or hawkmoth, stopping at a nicotiana flower.