Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

Fortune magazine commissioned Burchfield to illustrate an article about the Pennsylvania Railroad with the caption: “Accompanying this story FORTUNE presents with pride the first watercolors that the eminent U.S. artist Charles Burchfield has ever painted for a magazine.” 

Burchfield spent several days traveling the line, creating images of the railroad yards at Altoona and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, salvage operations from decrepit freight cars, busy workers, and this composition from Altoona, PA, where Fortune’s editor wrote: “150 road-worn locomotives a month enter the Juniata shops and come out as good as new.” Burchfield captured the fiery orange glow from a work pit under a massive engine. A nearby star beam emanating from a welder’s torch animates the smoky interior. You can smell the rusty, metallic fumes. His paint handling and attention to detail conjure the scale, heat, steam, and sounds of clanging metal.