Charles Ephraim Burchfield

The artist

Frank K.M. Rehn Galleries, New York

Mr. and Mrs. Steven T. Florie, New Britain, Connecticut

Kraushaar Galleries Inc., New York

Acquired from the above by the present owner

New Britain, Connecticut, The New Britain Museum of American Art, Sound and Silence: Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967) / Edward Hopper (1882-1967), 1973, no. 4, n.p., illustrated

Little Rock, Arkansas Arts Center, 2001 Collector's Show, 2001-02, no. 94

Joseph S. Trovato, Charles Burchfield: Catalogue of Paintings in Public and Private Collections, Utica, New York, 1970, no. 255, p. 56

J. Benjamin Townsend, ed., Charles Burchfield's Journals: The Poetry of Place, Albany, New York, 1993, pp. 248n11 and 727

Colleen Lahan, Charles Burchfield: An Annotated Bibliography, Lanham, Maryland, 1996, no. 758, pp. 86 and 205

"A light snow in the night all things covered with white – a cold faraway winter sunrise– there is a combination of midwinter and the yellow mellowness of late fall; apples plums & peaches in green leaf yet, snow-spattered" (Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, vol. 31, 1 November 1917, p. 10).

Executed in 1917, the period often referred to as the "golden year" of Charles Burchfield's career, Sunrise depicts a vantage point from the second story of the artist's home looking towards an alley (Joseph S. Trovato,  Charles Burchfield: Catalogue of Paintings in Public and Private Collections, Utica, New York, 1970, p. 55). The snow-covered roofs and grass juxtaposed against the vibrant sky creates a striking contrast within this composition. Layered brushstrokes of warm yellow and orange hues cascade across the upper register of the sheet, signaling a beautiful morning sunrise. Burchfield had been captivated by sunrises since the onset of his career, writing in a 1912 letter of their ability to cause "the beholder to stop, and "drink in" its beauty, almost unconsciously, until the blinding glaring of the sun awakens him" (Journals, 24 February 1912). Sunrise perfectly encapsulates the artist's infatuation with the impact of natural phenomena on his immediate surroundings.