Charles Ephraim Burchfield

Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries, New York (acquired by March 1930)

John L. Sexton

Mrs. Ellen Keaveny (acquired as a gift from the above in 1940)

Ms. Mary V. Keaveny, Wilmington, Delaware (acquired in 1960)

Private Collection

Sotheby's New York, 4 December 1980, lot 144 (consigned by the above)

Private Collection (acquired from the above)

Sotheby’s New York, 24 May 1990, lot 206 (consigned by the above)

Acquired from the above by the present owner

New York, Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries, Exhibition by Charles Burchfield, March - April 1930, no. 25, n.p.

John W. Straus, Charles E. Burchfield: An Interview with the Artist, an Account and Analysis of His Production, and a Catalogue of His Paintings, Honors thesis, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1942, no. 520

Joseph S. Trovato, ed., Charles Burchfield: Catalogue of Paintings in Public and Private Collections, Utica, New York, 1970, no. 680, p. 102

Charles Burchfield’s Hollyhocks captures a picturesque woodland home embraced by flourishing greenery. Tall stems of hollyhock flowers spring from the garden in the foreground and the abundance of warm tones creates an inviting environment. The present work exemplifies Burchfield’s mastery of watercolor and gouache, which secured his esteemed position within the American art historical canon. 

In this whimsical work on paper, the underlying geometric structure includes disjointed perspectives and layering effects that are reflective of modernist painting. The projection of the porch stops abruptly along the right edge of the composition, and the displaced angles within the overall architecture flatten the structure against the picture plane. The stylized forms and lack of depth achieve a playful, illustration-like quality, and the cottage, like many of Burchfield’s architectural subjects, seems to take on a personality of its own. 

Over the course of his career, Burchfield explored a wide variety of subjects and styles, though remained committed to a combination of watercolor and gouache as his chosen medium. His versatility makes it difficult to categorize Burchfield into one single artistic movement, and thus his oeuvre is often divided into three periods. Hollyhocks dates to the middle of his three stylistic eras, in which Burchfield frequently depicted residential architecture and industrial America in neutral tones and simple forms. Thus, the style of Hollyhocks is somewhat of an anomaly, as the cheerful mood departs from the ominous psychological undercurrents that pervade much of Burchfield’s concurrent work. Burchfield instead fills the scene with bursting, vibrant pigments, situating the quaint home within an enticing natural landscape.