Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

During his eight years at the M. H. Birge & Sons Company in Buffalo (1921-1929), Charles Burchfield was asked to design several large-scale scenic wallpapers, including Chinese Garden (1924-25), The Riviera (c. 1926-28), and a British-style hunting scene called Country Life and the Hunt (1924). These scenic wallpapers stylistically followed in the tradition of French nineteenth-century panoramic wallpapers, especially the work of Jean Zuber and his rival, Joseph Dufour. Zuber initially worked for Nicholas Dolfuss; then they became partners in Rixheim, Alsace under the name Jean Zuber et Compagnie (Zuber et Cie.).

Burchfield borrowed heavily from Zuber’s “Décor Chinois,” designed in 1832, for his 1920’s Chinese Garden. Following tradition, Zuber may have borrowed motifs from much earlier Chinese hand-painted wallpapers. Both Burchfield’s and Zuber’s designs incorporate a lush floral tableau including many varieties of blossoming trees, bushes and plants, a prominent palm or frond-leafed tree, exotic birds and colorful butterflies. This may have been a study for butterflies in the design.

Chinese Garden samples demonstrate the elegant beauty in full-scale detail of several color ways that were available at the time, which included backgrounds of peachy pink, sky blue, pale aqua, and metallic silver.