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PROPERTY FROM THE MARESCHAL FAMILY TRUST, VISTA, CALIFORNIA
Lot 10
Charles Ephraim Burchfield(1893-1967)July Wind 14 1/4 x 20 in. (36.2 x 50.8 cm.)
26 May 2022, 14:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$12,750 inc. premium
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Charles Ephraim Burchfield (1893-1967)
July Wind
dated 'July 1915' (lower right)
watercolor and pencil on paper
14 1/4 x 20 in. (36.2 x 50.8 cm.)
Executed in 1915.
dated 'July 1915' (lower right)
watercolor and pencil on paper
14 1/4 x 20 in. (36.2 x 50.8 cm.)
Executed in 1915.
Footnotes
Provenance
Bernard Danenberg Galleries, Inc., New York.
Sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, Los Angeles, June 15, 1977, lot 807.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.
Exhibited
New York, Bernard Danenberg Galleries, Inc., Interpretations of Nature: An Exhibition and Sale of Early Watercolors by Charles Burchfield, January 20-February 7, 1970, p. 4, no. 9, illustrated.
Literature
J.S. Trovato, Charles Burchfield: Catalogue of Paintings in Public and Private Collections, Utica, New York, 1970, p. 34, no. 27.
This lot is accompanied by a research report completed by Nancy Weekly of the Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, New York. We wish to thank her for her kind assistance cataloging this lot.
According to Nancy Weekly, Burchfield Scholar, Head of Collections & Charles Cary Rumsey Curator, Burchfield Penney Art Center, "although the exact date in July 1915 cannot be determined, the following journal entry provides some insight into the kind of weather when July Wind was painted. The imagery is similar to other scenes in Salem, Ohio." (N. Weekly, unpublished letter, April 4, 2022)
"July 4, 1915.
A windy day –
P.M. To Strawn's Lots & South of Post's sketching –
Booming white windy day clouds, wind waves across bending hay, clawing blue green oats against yellowing wheat, stiff hot wind, harsh chirping call of meadowlarks – Windy July! Song of bluebird At sunset in oat field south of Post's – Remote salmon thunderheads far to east of the blue shadowed Dutchman's, - strong wind out of south 0 scattered, rainy sky, sun vanishes when a colorless glow; silvery call of meadowlark –
Homeward – the wild night wind thru the trees – metallic blue sky –
Lightning to west & distant thunder rumbles each flash plants against the thunderish sky a vision of huge black windy trees -
The storm comes quickly – wild rain dashing – cool wind – snapping-lights in sky –
Afterwards a calm rain-dripping –
When on June 14, 1915 as I saw my "vision" of the power & beauty of the idea I suddenly evolved that caused me to lie down tensely in the hay, I seem to only realize by now that it is to be the key of my whole life work, unless in due time, a grander thing may come to me – which "heaven" forbid, else I expire in overwhelming passion!
I often speculate on the variety of Gods the world contains – from the lowest form of intelligence (which creates idols out of earthly material) – to the next highest which imagines a God in man's likeness, but all-powerful, to the Gods of higher & more remote intelligences which take on the grotesque shapes of negation – truly I have lost myself in my work; the mild breeze of the question of the universe can no longer make an impression in water that is torn by the wilder winds of poetry & beauty & passion –
July 5, 1915.
A wild windy day after the stormy night – Day dawns clear & cold with a stiff wind - soon come windy day clouds in first white, later with cold blue bases & booming white tops –
To Bentley's on picnic – wind waves in hay, - irresistible – wind shattered trees becoming black against the blue & white sky -
The wind cleared my mind up –
In the evening at the Picture show, two brilliant RO spots appeared suddenly on the black wall of the theatre - it was the late sun! and it seemed a thing remote from this world –"
(C.E. Burchfield, Journals, vol. 26, July 4-5, 1915, pp. 40-45)