Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

"Dear Charlie: It has occurred to me that Flame of Spring shows much the same motivation as The First Hepaticas, but with a change of emphasis, an abandonment of the grotesque and a more mature differentiation of the drawing and color. It abounds in poetic passages, and that, after all, is what makes a picture possible to live with. I got from it the idea that something is about to happen." —Excerpt from a letter from Edward Wales Root to Charles E. Burchfield, May 31, 1950, Burchfield Penney Art Center, Charles E. Burchfield Archives, Gift of David Richter, 1977

Early spring was Burchfield’s favorite season for tramping through forests, observing nascent life after winter’s hibernation. From his home near Buffalo, he frequently visited Gowanda country, as he referred to the valley about forty miles south of city. In his journal on March 23, 1948, Burchfield made observations about the terrain, the shifting daylight, and birdsong, all of which filled him with nostalgia for boyhood hikes in the woods of Salem, Ohio. Sketching near an opening in hemlock trees, he captured the aura of the moment and elevated it to a meditation on finding one’s spiritual home, a True North.