Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

Burchfield loved the raw late-winter/early-spring season in western New York. He embraced the challenge of hiking through forest and marshland to study and sketch shifting sunlight, melting snow, and the first signs of life emerging from dormant woodlands. The skunk-cabbage is an early riser—because it generates its own heat, the plant can emerge in below-freezing temperatures. It also stinks—hence the name—but its odor attracts pollinators. Burchfield counted it among his favorite flowers. He commented on the skunk-cabbage in a letter to Edward and Grace Root in April 1932: 

I hope you won’t be insulted when I tell you that seeing my first skunk-cabbage of the year gave me the thought that I must write you. This was two or three weeks ago, and am only now getting at it. But when you consider the place skunk-cabbages hold in my esteem you won’t feel so bad. I made a special pilgrimage one afternoon to see them – I had been ill with ‘grippe for a couple weeks and was simply bursting to get out somewhere. I made no studies this year, but just took my enjoyment in looking – they were in their prime.