Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

Burchfield painted Blue Vista in Bedford Glens, Ohio, one of his favorite haunts, about twelve miles southeast of Cleveland, where he studied at the Cleveland School of Art. On May 28, 1916, the lyrical scene resonated as "A momentary glympse [sic] into a forgotten world." Done with his painting on that rainy day, he "went down into the immense valley at sunset time — a dense fog arose obscuring the sunlight but the afterglow turned it all to a rich yellow, up & down the valley was endless space, rapids frothed at my feet — the wet shore reeked with plants —" With all his senses acutely attuned to this solitary experience, he "ascended the valley top — nothing was visible in the valley but white mists, which made it seem like the edge of the world, yet I could hear the water roaring,"  From the depth of woods, he heard a hidden "wood thrush’s wonderful song down in the cool dark blue-green valley —"

Walt Whitman, "BUMBLE-BEES, " Specimen Days: "As I write this, two or three weeks later, I am sitting near the brook under a tulip tree, 70 feet high, thick with the fresh verdure of its young maturity—a beautiful object—every branch, every leaf perfect. From top to bottom, seeking the sweet juice in the blossoms, it swarms with myriads of these wild bees, whose loud and steady humming makes an undertone to the whole, and to my mood and the hour."

In his Painting Index, Burchfield recorded that he gave Blue Vista to his brother Joe. Joseph Hays Burchfield (1890-1952), who was three years older and graduated from the Cleveland School of Art in 1917, a year after Charles. In 1918 Joe enlisted in the U. S. Medical Corps and joined the Sixteen Infantry, First American Division, in France. He was shot in the hip while trying to attend to a wounded soldier on July 22. In October he received the Distinguished Service Cross award “for extraordinary heroism in action…During the entire operations he repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire in order to dress and evacuate the wounded. On July 22 he went through a heavy enemy barrage to render first aid to the wounded in the front lines and to evacuate them to the rear, and was himself wounded while engaged in this work.” The letter announcing the award was signed “By command of Gen. Pershing.” Joe gave up art work when he returned, declaring his brother the better artist.