Retreat of Winter

Retreat of Winter by Charles E. Burchfield represents the artist’s culmination of his lifelong quest to depict nature’s vitality, especially the change of seasons from winter’s icy grip to spring’s welcome regeneration. The masterwork is dated 1950-64 to document that it contains a painting made in 1950 called Song of the Brook, which was enlarged to 40 x 60 inches and completed fourteen years later. An even earlier version of Song of the Brook dates to 1917, Burchfield’s self-proclaimed “golden year” when the art school graduate produced a large body of experimental, expressive works, many containing personal symbols called “Conventions for Abstract Thoughts,” as well as audio-cryptograms to represent the sounds. One of his “Noisy Spring Brook” sketches contains the notation: “The noise of the brook falls resounds [throughout] the woods— everything is saturated & influenced by it— The only true realism – gives the sound & smell as well as sight.” Burchfield articulated authentic memories of his experiences so viewers can relive the scenes in all their sensory dimensions.

At the age of 21, Burchfield worked as a guard at the Hatch Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio during its exhibition of Chinese art in 1914. He said, “This provided me the opportunity to examine the exhibition in every detail. The beautiful scroll paintings were an overwhelming experience.” Scrolls often depict a scene advancing over time, which inspired Burchfield to make “All-Day Sketches” during the summer of 1915 that he intended to convert into paintings to show fluctuations of weather and light over the course of 24 hours. He saved those sketches with their ideas percolating for 28 years, which resulted in his first season transition paintings: Two Ravines (1934-43), now in the Hunter Museum of American Art, and The Coming of Spring (1917-43) owned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Both are significantly related predecessors to Retreat of Winter. All three paintings contain early paintings that Burchfield expanded and remastered many years later as his vision and experiences developed. He produced Two Ravines first, then noted “the ‘Coming of Spring’ finished in three days as reaction against the realism of ‘Two Ravines’.” Truly magical and transcendent, Retreat of Winter is his third—and most complex—version. 

Fortunately, Burchfield preserved copious studies for Song of the Brook and Retreat of Winter, as well as Two Ravines, The Coming of Spring, and other works. Looking at all these studies and paintings provides insight into Burchfield’s evolving concepts and practice. Progress can also be traced through journal entries, such as this one from February 14, 1962, as Retreat of Winter was emerging: “The perennial fascination of the ‘convention’ of a ‘black hollow’ (which came to me in 1917, and has haunted me ever since)—symbolizing the dark mystery of a North Woods, where winter lurks in the V of deep sunless ravines.” In the finished painting, vivid yellow sunlight wafts into a snow-coated ravine as melted ice water burbles down a rocky zigzag path, its ripples providing a gentle melody. Birdsong emanates from a mysterious hollow. Sweet hepaticas, ferns, and velvety moss are the first signs of spring, their bright colors countering a floating clump of decaying oak leaves. Winter retreats into a gloomy, colorless, icicle-strewn cave on the right.

The acquisition of Retreat of Winter marks a significant milestone for the Burchfield Penney Art Center, reinforcing its commitment to preserving and showcasing Burchfield’s legacy as well as art by current and former residents of Buffalo, New York, and the surrounding region. The museum’s staff, board of trustees, members, and friends proudly celebrate the acquisition of Retreat of Winter in this premiere introductory exhibition.

Nancy Weekly

Burchfield Scholar, Head of Collections & Charles Cary Rumsey Curator