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Burchfield was often driven by nostalgia, and it was included in his Conventions for Abstract Thoughts, his visual lexicon of small drawings that symbolize various emotional states. About 1943, he began to rework earlier watercolors, adding to them to extend their scale and enhance their impact. “I still find my early things a gold mine. … My reconstruction jobs of my early things has entered a new phase. I am taking some that were not quite ‘successes’ (but which had a worthy aim in them) adding to them and adding or changing the elements to bring them out to the full what I was aiming at.” [2] Much like a wallpaper hanger, he would carefully match seams and glue together sheets of paper and mount them to a heavier support. This was his process for The Woodpecker; it is made up of four vertical sections of paper, with a strip across the top uniting them.
The setting for The Woodpecker is the woods, probably midday in early summer. The remnants of two dead trees mark the foreground left and right. Behind them are a coniferous tree and a lush hemlock. A grove of trees is seen in the distance, through which the sun is shining. The sky is blue, broken occasionally with clouds. The ground is furrowed with brown and yellow ruts, and small creatures, or flowers, dot the lower foreground. The woodpecker of the title—not immediately apparent—is shown in profile high up in the large forward tree.
The Woodpecker was to be included in Burchfield’s retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1955. However, when the exhibition’s organizer, John I.H. Baur, criticized the painting as being too naturalistic in places, Burchfield withdrew it from the show. Nonetheless, Baur did commend the artist on the treatment of the woodpecker. Over the next eight years, Burchfield reworked his composition and increased its scale. He frequently delayed the release of his paintings. As he explained: “I’ve finally learned to keep everything at least a year before I let it go out. It takes that long sometimes to see the mistakes, things that should be changed. I never can tell right away about a thing—I count on my wife to do that.” [3]
Burchfield was a superb watercolorist, understanding and even pushing the limits of the medium. He was unorthodox in the way he extended his sheets of paper, and in addition he freely scrapped, sponged, mopped, and wiped his paint. At the Cleveland School of Art he had specialized in illustration, where watercolor was a regular part of the curriculum. He explained why he favored watercolor: “My preference for watercolor is a natural one. To paint in watercolor is as natural to me as using a pencil; whereas I always feel self-conscious when I use oil. I have to stop and think about how I am going to apply the paint to the canvas, which is a detriment to complete freedom of expression. It is like a speaker pausing in his talk to get just the right word. To me, watercolor is so much more pliable, and quick. For instance, you decide that a whole passage is undesirable; you take a sponge and wipe it out in a few seconds. To do the same thing in oil is more complicated and takes more time.” [4]
In the early 1950s, Burchfield began to suffer some health problems; these, along with his penchant for melancholy, made it difficult for him to work at his typically prolific rate. The Woodpecker does not reflect these setbacks; instead it radiates Burchfield’s exuberant appreciation of nature, in small details as well as large. The rat-a-tat rhythm of the woodpecker permeates the entire composition, sending vibrating sound waves throughout. The edges of the tree, which the bird attacks, are staccato-like, while the ground below ripples, and the small creatures/flowers bounce up and down in a kind of frenetic dance. This combination of sound and sight, known as synesthesia, is a leitmotif of Burchfield’s art, and reverts back to his Conventions for Abstract Thoughts. For him, nature was alive with sights, sounds, and smells, and it was there he found solace.
Notes:
[1] Burchfield, journal entry, August 26, 1930, quoted in J. Benjamin Townsend, ed. Charles Burchfield’s Journals: The Poetry of Place (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993), 295.
[2] Burchfield, journal entry, April 17, 1944, quoted in John I. H. Baur, The Inlander: Life and Work of Charles Burchfield, 1893–1967 (East Brunswick, NJ: Associated University Presses, Inc., and Cornwall Books, 1982), 195.
[3] Charles C. Eldredge, Barbara Babcock Millhouse, and Robert G. Workman. American Originals: Selections from Reynolda House, Museum of American Art (New York: Abbeville Press, 1990), 122, and Burchfield quoted in Laverne George, “A Day with Charles Burchfield,” Arts 30, no. 4, (1956), 30.
[4] Burchfield, quoted in Patricia D. Hamm and Nancy Weekly, “Beyond Imagery: An Overview of Charles Burchfield’s Materials and Techniques,” Watercolor 3 (Spring 1997), 116, quoted in Cynthia Burlingham, “A Natural Preference: Burchfield and Watercolor,” in Cynthia Burlingham and Robert Gober, eds. Heat Wave in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield (Los Angeles, CA: Hammer Museum, University of California, and Munich: Prestel Verlag, 2099), 12.
ProvenanceFrom 1964 to 1984
Barbara B. Millhouse, New York, NY and Winston-Salem, NY, purchased from Frank K. M. Rehn, Inc., New York, NY on February 7, 1964. [1]
From 1984
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Barbara B. Millhouse on December 28, 1984. [2]
Notes:
[1] Invoice, February 7, 1964, object file.
[2] Deed of Gift, object file.
Exhibition History1967
Burchfield Center for Western New York Art, State University College at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY (1/1967-4/1967)
1990-1992
American Originals, Selections From Reynolda House Museum Of American Art
The American Federation of Arts
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami FL (9/22/1990-11/18/1990)
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs CA (12/16/1990-2/10/1991)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY (3/6/1991-5/11/1991)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis TN (6/2/1991-7/28/1991)
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth TX (8/17/1991-10/20/1991)
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago IL (11/17/1991-1/12/1992)
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (3/1/1992-4/26/1992)
Cat. No. 41
2006-2007
American Watercolors: 1880-1965
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (7/1/2006-1/15/2007)
Published References"Charles Burchfield." Arts Magazine 30 (January 1956): 26. photo of Burchfield with
"The Woodpecker" in the background.
Baigell, Matthew. Charles Burchfield. New York: Watson-Guptil, Publications, 1976: 29.
Burchfield, Charles. Charles Burchfield's Journals (8/6/1955, 2/2/1957) Burchfield Penny Arts Center.
Charles Burchfield Catalogue Of Paintings In Public And Private Collections Utica, New York: Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, 1970: 302.
Kirk, Ruth M. "Charles Burchfield: A Painter of Sights and Sounds." Highlights For Children 51:7 (July 1996): 26-27.
Makowski, Colleen Lanhan. Charles Burchfield: An Annotated Bibliography Lanham, MD & London: Scarecrow Press, 1996: 171.
Millhouse, Barbara B. & Workman, Robert. American Originals New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1990: 122-3.
Townsend, J. Benjamin ed. Charles Burchfield's Journals: The Poetry Of Place Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993: 535, 535n.25, 539, 541, 556.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg 220, 221
DepartmentAmerican Art
The Woodpecker
Artist
Charles Ephraim Burchfield
(1893 - 1967)
Date1955-1963
Mediumwatercolor, gouache, crayon, on pieced paper
DimensionsFrame: 54 3/4 x 42 1/2 in. (139.1 x 108 cm)
Paper: 50 x 38 in. (127 x 96.5 cm)
Image (visible): 49 1/4 x 37 1/4 in. (125.1 x 94.6 cm)
SignedCEB (monogram)
1955-63
Credit LineGift of Barbara B. Millhouse
CopyrightBurchfield Penney Art Center
Object number1984.2.14
DescriptionIt is an undisputed fact that Charles Burchfield was passionate about nature. He had easy access to it at his home in semi-rural Gardenville, New York, with its nearby woods and extensive garden, but he also drove to special places in the vicinity, usually forests or swamps. He immersed himself at all times of day and seasons, sweat pouring down his brow in summer, the water for his paints freezing in winter. He also wrote fervently about his perceptions, as he did one August: “The hot white drought wind comes out of the brassy southwest sky, scorching the earth with its breath, like a blast of air from a coke-oven. The small saplings shrivel, and stand gaunt with curled dried white leaves; the foliage of larger trees turns a sickly brown—grass is brittle and dry and affording scant forage for the hundreds of grass-hoppers and locusts that zigzag through the maze of stems.” [1]Burchfield was often driven by nostalgia, and it was included in his Conventions for Abstract Thoughts, his visual lexicon of small drawings that symbolize various emotional states. About 1943, he began to rework earlier watercolors, adding to them to extend their scale and enhance their impact. “I still find my early things a gold mine. … My reconstruction jobs of my early things has entered a new phase. I am taking some that were not quite ‘successes’ (but which had a worthy aim in them) adding to them and adding or changing the elements to bring them out to the full what I was aiming at.” [2] Much like a wallpaper hanger, he would carefully match seams and glue together sheets of paper and mount them to a heavier support. This was his process for The Woodpecker; it is made up of four vertical sections of paper, with a strip across the top uniting them.
The setting for The Woodpecker is the woods, probably midday in early summer. The remnants of two dead trees mark the foreground left and right. Behind them are a coniferous tree and a lush hemlock. A grove of trees is seen in the distance, through which the sun is shining. The sky is blue, broken occasionally with clouds. The ground is furrowed with brown and yellow ruts, and small creatures, or flowers, dot the lower foreground. The woodpecker of the title—not immediately apparent—is shown in profile high up in the large forward tree.
The Woodpecker was to be included in Burchfield’s retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1955. However, when the exhibition’s organizer, John I.H. Baur, criticized the painting as being too naturalistic in places, Burchfield withdrew it from the show. Nonetheless, Baur did commend the artist on the treatment of the woodpecker. Over the next eight years, Burchfield reworked his composition and increased its scale. He frequently delayed the release of his paintings. As he explained: “I’ve finally learned to keep everything at least a year before I let it go out. It takes that long sometimes to see the mistakes, things that should be changed. I never can tell right away about a thing—I count on my wife to do that.” [3]
Burchfield was a superb watercolorist, understanding and even pushing the limits of the medium. He was unorthodox in the way he extended his sheets of paper, and in addition he freely scrapped, sponged, mopped, and wiped his paint. At the Cleveland School of Art he had specialized in illustration, where watercolor was a regular part of the curriculum. He explained why he favored watercolor: “My preference for watercolor is a natural one. To paint in watercolor is as natural to me as using a pencil; whereas I always feel self-conscious when I use oil. I have to stop and think about how I am going to apply the paint to the canvas, which is a detriment to complete freedom of expression. It is like a speaker pausing in his talk to get just the right word. To me, watercolor is so much more pliable, and quick. For instance, you decide that a whole passage is undesirable; you take a sponge and wipe it out in a few seconds. To do the same thing in oil is more complicated and takes more time.” [4]
In the early 1950s, Burchfield began to suffer some health problems; these, along with his penchant for melancholy, made it difficult for him to work at his typically prolific rate. The Woodpecker does not reflect these setbacks; instead it radiates Burchfield’s exuberant appreciation of nature, in small details as well as large. The rat-a-tat rhythm of the woodpecker permeates the entire composition, sending vibrating sound waves throughout. The edges of the tree, which the bird attacks, are staccato-like, while the ground below ripples, and the small creatures/flowers bounce up and down in a kind of frenetic dance. This combination of sound and sight, known as synesthesia, is a leitmotif of Burchfield’s art, and reverts back to his Conventions for Abstract Thoughts. For him, nature was alive with sights, sounds, and smells, and it was there he found solace.
Notes:
[1] Burchfield, journal entry, August 26, 1930, quoted in J. Benjamin Townsend, ed. Charles Burchfield’s Journals: The Poetry of Place (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993), 295.
[2] Burchfield, journal entry, April 17, 1944, quoted in John I. H. Baur, The Inlander: Life and Work of Charles Burchfield, 1893–1967 (East Brunswick, NJ: Associated University Presses, Inc., and Cornwall Books, 1982), 195.
[3] Charles C. Eldredge, Barbara Babcock Millhouse, and Robert G. Workman. American Originals: Selections from Reynolda House, Museum of American Art (New York: Abbeville Press, 1990), 122, and Burchfield quoted in Laverne George, “A Day with Charles Burchfield,” Arts 30, no. 4, (1956), 30.
[4] Burchfield, quoted in Patricia D. Hamm and Nancy Weekly, “Beyond Imagery: An Overview of Charles Burchfield’s Materials and Techniques,” Watercolor 3 (Spring 1997), 116, quoted in Cynthia Burlingham, “A Natural Preference: Burchfield and Watercolor,” in Cynthia Burlingham and Robert Gober, eds. Heat Wave in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield (Los Angeles, CA: Hammer Museum, University of California, and Munich: Prestel Verlag, 2099), 12.
ProvenanceFrom 1964 to 1984
Barbara B. Millhouse, New York, NY and Winston-Salem, NY, purchased from Frank K. M. Rehn, Inc., New York, NY on February 7, 1964. [1]
From 1984
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Barbara B. Millhouse on December 28, 1984. [2]
Notes:
[1] Invoice, February 7, 1964, object file.
[2] Deed of Gift, object file.
Exhibition History1967
Burchfield Center for Western New York Art, State University College at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY (1/1967-4/1967)
1990-1992
American Originals, Selections From Reynolda House Museum Of American Art
The American Federation of Arts
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami FL (9/22/1990-11/18/1990)
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs CA (12/16/1990-2/10/1991)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY (3/6/1991-5/11/1991)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis TN (6/2/1991-7/28/1991)
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth TX (8/17/1991-10/20/1991)
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago IL (11/17/1991-1/12/1992)
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (3/1/1992-4/26/1992)
Cat. No. 41
2006-2007
American Watercolors: 1880-1965
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (7/1/2006-1/15/2007)
Published References"Charles Burchfield." Arts Magazine 30 (January 1956): 26. photo of Burchfield with
"The Woodpecker" in the background.
Baigell, Matthew. Charles Burchfield. New York: Watson-Guptil, Publications, 1976: 29.
Burchfield, Charles. Charles Burchfield's Journals (8/6/1955, 2/2/1957) Burchfield Penny Arts Center.
Charles Burchfield Catalogue Of Paintings In Public And Private Collections Utica, New York: Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, 1970: 302.
Kirk, Ruth M. "Charles Burchfield: A Painter of Sights and Sounds." Highlights For Children 51:7 (July 1996): 26-27.
Makowski, Colleen Lanhan. Charles Burchfield: An Annotated Bibliography Lanham, MD & London: Scarecrow Press, 1996: 171.
Millhouse, Barbara B. & Workman, Robert. American Originals New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1990: 122-3.
Townsend, J. Benjamin ed. Charles Burchfield's Journals: The Poetry Of Place Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993: 535, 535n.25, 539, 541, 556.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg 220, 221
Status
Not on view