Charles Ephraim Burchfield 1893 - 1967

Frank K.M. Rehn Galleries, New York
Dr. and Mrs. Patrick H. Daoust, Dearborn, Michigan
Acquired by the present owner from the above

New York, Frank K.M. Rehn Galleries
Detroit, Michigan, Arwin Gallery

Joseph S. Trovato, Charles Burchfield: Catalogue of Paintings in Public and Private Collections, Utica, New York, 1970, no. 1280, p. 300
J. Benjamin Townsend, ed., Charles Burchfield's Journals: The Poetry of Place, Albany, New York, 1993, p. 70, illustrated fig. 19, p. 71

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In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Charles Burchfield is one of the most celebrated American watercolorists of the twentieth century. Executed in 1963, September Wind exemplifies the artist’s fascination with nature and the changing of seasons. Burchfield’s love of nature began in his childhood, as he walked through the woods near his home in Salem, Ohio, and it continued during his time as a student at the Cleveland School of Art. In a journal entry of 1914 Burchfield wrote, “Nature is always new, always fresh, and in this respect it is alone among the aesthetic enjoyments, unless perhaps it is a rare strain of music, a painting or piece of literature, not yet put to the test. There are works of art in all of these which we think would never grow old to us, yet never putting [i.e., put] them to a test, or more truthfully, [are] never afforded an opportunity to do so. Nature, contrariwise, is rigorously tried every day, every hour and comes forth from each trial victorious and serene. Thus we may for a score [of] succeeding days hear the ‘brassy crescendo’ of a cicada at precisely the same hour, and each day we listen to it as intently and whole-heartedly as tho hearing it the first time. We may see the wind shake sunshine from the pliant poplar leaves day after day, and still continue to marvel at the divine beauty of it” (J. Benjamin Townsend, ed., Charles Burchfield's Journals: The Poetry of Place, Albany, New York, 1993, pp. 379-80).

The present work beautifully captures the spirit of September, the beginning of a new season when the temperature begins to cool and leaves start to fall. Here the viewer has the sense of having stumbled into the secret life of a landscape, butterflies flying in harmony through the whirling leaves on the trees. Matthew Baigell wrote, "With pigment and brushstroke rather than with identifying detail, Burchfield sought the forces of nature as they coursed through all things. With few distractions, he let the sky, the plants, and the earth throb with equal intensity... Using this technique, Burchfield painted atmosphere as if it had density. Depending on tones and colors, he could suggest the look and feeling of a hot, humid day or the frenzied moments of a snowstorm. He could keep butterflies and other insects in constant motion, as if they were intoxicated, he once said, 'by the sheer ecstasy of existence'" (Charles Burchfield, New York, 1976, p. 170).