Charles Ephraim Burchfield

The Reverend Victor H. Neeb, East Aurora, New York

Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., New York, 13 December 1973, lot 6 (consigned by the above)

Private Collection, New York (acquired at the above sale)

Vance Jordan Fine Art Inc., New York

Acquired from the above in May 2001 by the present owner

Joseph S. Trovato, Charles Burchfield: Catalogue of Paintings in Public and Private Collections, Utica, New York, 1970, no. 139, p. 48

Painted in 1916, Charles Ephraim Burchfield’s Poplars in July depicts a rhythmic row of poplar trees lining a sunlit summer promenade, exemplifying the artist’s mastery of watercolor in rendering the vitality and atmosphere of the natural world. Born and raised in Salem, Ohio, Burchfield began painting at the age of five and worked from the Burchfield Homestead, his family home and studio, until the age of twenty-eight. The Homestead has since been preserved as a museum dedicated to his legacy. Throughout his career, Burchfield earned acclaim for his highly original style, one that merged realism with what critics described as “romantic fantasy” and expressionistic emotion. 

In a journal entry dated a month prior to painting the present work, Burchfield described the effect of the weather on the natural world around him: “Trees at afterglow are without branches, and are heavy at top, a [weird] hanging rhythm takes place” (Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, Vol. 27B, June 11, 1916, p. 65). In Poplars in July, the interplay of glowing sky tones and the vertical sweep of dark poplars conveys both the serenity and the spiritual intensity that define Burchfield’s most enduring visions of nature.