Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

In Dying Poplars Burchfield uses trees symbolically to evoke the beauty of death in nature's cycles. Three stylized poplars fill the paper as dominant verticals, elegantly covered with triangular bark patterns, upward curving branches, and lacy clusters of tiny leaves. The scene radiates heat, its effect heightened by the narrow orange path beneath the graceful, dying trees, edged by dry, yellow grass. The poetry of this image is also reflected in Burchfield's journal entry on July 6, 1916: 

How the hot noon sun pours down on the glaring crimson roses.
A heat withered leaf falling in a sun-hazed forest –
Stars zigzagging above the lightning-lit horizon with its jagged border of black trees –
Poplars dying in the noon heat-haze —

--Nancy Weekly, 2002