Where to See Charles E. Burchfield

Charles E. Burchfield, born in 1893 and deceased in 1967, was the first artist to have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. This occurred in 1930, when the museum was only a year old. At thirty-seven, he was considered a master of fantastical nature poetry.

Charles E. Burchfield is known for transforming the American countryside into a realm of moonlight and magic. He is also recognised as a master of fantastical nature poetry. He primarily worked in watercolour and extended the mystical tradition in America.

His youthful works depict weather, sound, and seasonal mood as near-abstract patterns, which are closer to Expressionism than to any American tradition. Later, he returned to visionary landscapes, reworking early watercolours into larger, more hallucinatory compositions. In these, trees pulsate, weather has texture, and the natural world vibrates with animist presence.