Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

Model for Christmas Afternoon (1954), Christmas Card produced by the American Artists Group

            In a note to friends, Bertha Burchfield wrote: “Charlie’s old Home – Town / Salem, Ohio / The Cardinals stay all Winter / his mother used to feed them. / Every morning 5 or 6 of them / The view is imaginative of early childhood.”  The scene from Burchfield’s snow-covered backyard depicts eight cardinals on the ground eating seed, with more in nearby trees or flying.  The vantage point is from an upstairs bedroom window.  The small home owned by the Weavers on the western side of the alley is shown with smoke coming from its characteristically tall chimney.  (Painted and documented in the Rehn Gallery Archives as Winter Afternoon (1954), 12 ½ x 16 ¼ inches, this image was used for the card and is related to the larger painting, Cardinals in Winter (1917-54)

(Nancy Weekly, 2020)