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Nov 6, 2008

White Violets and Coal Mine

1918

Charles Burchfield

(American, 1893–1967)

America, 20th century

Watercolor and gouache over graphite on wove paper

Sheet: 58.8 x 54 cm (23 1/8 x 21 1/4 in.)

Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection 1937.3202

Reproduced with permission from the Charles E. Burchfield Foundation

Catalogue raisonné: Straus 313; Trovato 442

Location

not on view

Did you know?

Most of the mines around Burchfield's hometown, Salem, Ohio, were out of use and abandoned even in his own time.

Description

Around 1918, Charles Burchfield began to explore and draw deserted mines around his hometown, abandoned after their resources were depleted. Many of these works were made just before he was drafted into World War I, a time characterized by intense anxiety and depression. He saw a connection between these emotions and the mines he visited, which he described as having “dark and gloomy depths . . . a luring mysteriousness.” Here, he portrayed the cave as a seemingly infinite space, contrasting its shadowy interior with white violets blooming from cracks in the rocky landscape.

Artist biography

Charles Burchfield

Charles Burchfield was among the most original and poetic painters of the Cleveland modernist movement. Born in Ashtabula, he moved to Salem, Ohio, following the death of his father in 1898. After graduating from high school, he attended Cleveland School of Art, studying with William Eastman, Frederick Gottwald, Henry Keller, and Frank Wilcox. In 1914 Burchfield began attending Kokoon Klub exhibitions, and in spring 1915 he went to Brandywine to meet William Sommer. Around this time Burchfild began experimenting with the brilliant colors and simplified forms of the Berlin Heights painters. He painted his first mature works in 1915, and grad ed from the Cleveland School of Art with a degree in illustration the following spring. That summer the Cleveland School of Art sponsored his first solo exhibition, and in the fall, after attending the National Academy of Design in New York for one month, he returned to Salem. In February 1917 the Cleveland School of Art mounted his second solo exhibition. Burchfield was inducted into the army that summer. After his return in 1919 he exhibited with other Cleveland modernists at the Play House, Laukhuff’ s Book store, and other Cleveland venues. In 1921 he went on an extended sketching trip through eastern Ohio with Keller, Wilcox, and Paul Travis, exhibiting these recent paintings at the Cleveland School of Art and in the May Show at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Later that year he moved to Buffalo to work as a wallpaper designer, a position he retained until he resigned in 1929 to become a full-time painter. Over the next 30 years he exhibited extensively at museums and galleries across the country. Solo exhibitions of his paintings were held at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (1930), Pittsburgh’ s Carnegie Institute of Art (1935, 1938, 1946), and Buffalo’ s Albright-Knox Art Gallery (1944, 1955, 1963, 1967). In 1953 New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art organized a major exhibition that traveled to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Burchfield died in West Seneca, New York.
"Transformations in Cleveland Art" (CMA, 1996), p. 224

Provenance

1930

(Frank K.M. Rehn Gallery, NY, sold to Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)

1930-

Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Maciejunes, Nannette V., and Michael D. Hall. The Paintings of Charles Burchfield: North by Midwest. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. in association with the Columbus Museum of Art, 1997. Mentioned: 114, 220-221; Reproduced: 221

Exhibition of Paintings by Charles Burchfield. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland School of Art, 1941. Mentioned: no. 23; Reproduced on cover

Trovato, Joseph S. Charles Burchfield: Catalogue of Paintings in Public and Private Collections. Utica: Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, 1970. Mentioned: p. 77, no. 442; Reproduced: p. 76

Townsend, J. Benjamin, ed. Charles Burchfield's Journals: The Poetry of Place. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993. Mentioned: p. 339, 684 n.20; Reproduced: p. 338

Bauer, John I. H. Charles Burchfield. Exh. Cat. New York: Whitney Museum, 1956. Mentioned: no. 30; Reproduced: plate 15

Maciejunes, Nannette V. The Early Works of Charles E. Burchfield, 1915-1921. Exh. Cat. Columbus: Columbus Museum of Art, 1987. Mentioned: p. 13, no. 56; Reproduced: p. 54

Charles Burchfield. New York: American Artists Group, 1945.

Burchfield, Louise. "A Watercolor by Charles Burchfield." Cleveland Museum of Art Bulletin (April 1938): 66, 71. Mentioned: p. 66; Reproduced: p. 71

O'Connor, John, Jr. "Charles Burchfield: Exhibition of His Paintings at the Carnegie Institute." Carnegie Magazine 11 (March 1938): 309-312.

Trovato, Joseph S. The Nature of Charles Burchfield: A Memorial Exhibition, 1893–1967, Paints, Drawings, Prints. Exh. Cat. Utica, NY: Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, 1970. Mentioned: no. 116

Curry, Larry. Eight American Masters of Watercolor: Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Maurice B. Prendergast, John Marin, Arthur G. Dove, Charles Demuth, Charles E. Burchfield, Andrew Wyeth. Exh. Cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1968. Mentioned: p. 15, no. 89

Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of an Exhibition of American Painting from 1860 Until Today at the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: [Printed by the Artcraft Printing Co.], 1937. Mentioned: cat. no. 23, p. 15, Reproduced: pl. XXX

Foshay, Ella M. Reflections of Nature: Flowers in American Art. New York: Knopf, in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1984. Mentioned: p. 79; Reproduced: p. 82, fig. 61

Baur, John I. H. The Inlander: Life and Work of Charles Burchfield 1893-1967. Newark, Del: University of Delaware Press, 1984. Mentioned: 85-86, 89

| Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art: Picture Book No. 4 . [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1952. Reproduced: p. 18 archive.org

Exhibition history

Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 228): March 25, 2009 - October 19, 2009.

Early Water Colors of Charles Burchfield. Phillips Memorial Gallery (November 5, 1933 - February 15, 1934).

Exhibition of American Painting from 1860 Until Today. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-October 4, 1937).

An Exhibition of Water Colors and Oils by Charles Burchfield.. Carnegie Institute.

Expressionism and Related Movements. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 26-February 28, 1939).

Exhibition of Paintings by Charles Burchfield. The Cleveland School of Art.

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

Charles Burchfield: A Retrospective Exhibition of Watercolors and Oils 1916-1943. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (organizer); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 4-28, 1945).

The Seasons as Represented in Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 4-September 9, 1954).

Charles Burchfield Retrospective Exhibition. Whitney Museum of American Art (January 11-February 26, 1956); The Baltimore Museum of Art (March 14-April 22, 1956); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (May 9-June 17, 1956); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (July 11-August 19, 1956); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (September 5-October 14, 1956); The Phillips Collection (November 4-December 11, 1956); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 28, 1956-February 10, 1957).

Paintings by Charles Burchfield.. Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Museum of American Art.

Eight American Masters of Watercolor: Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Maurice B. Prendergast, John Marin, Arthur G. Dove, Charles Demuth, Charles E. Burchfield, Andrew Wyeth. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (April 23-June 16, 1968); Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum (June 28-August 18, 1968); Seattle Art Museum (September 5-October 13, 1968).

The Nature of Charles Burchfield: A Memorial Exhibition, 1893–1967, Paints, Drawings, Prints. Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY (organizer) (April 3-June 14, 1970).

The Early Works of Charles E. Burchfield 1915-1921. Columbus Museum of Art (December 13, 1987-February 7, 1988); Laguna Art Museum (March 5, 1998-April 24, 1988); Burchfield Penney Art Center (May 14-July 3, 1998).

The Paintings of Charles Burchfield: North by Midwest. Columbus Museum of Art (March 25-May 19, 1997); Burchfield Penney Art Center (June 15-August 17, 1997); National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC (September 1, 1997-January 25, 1998).

Burchfield to Schreckengost: Cleveland Art of the Jazz Age. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 28-July 18, 2004).

Charles Burchfield: The Ohio Landscapes, 1915–1920. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 22, 2018-May 5, 2019).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=White Violets and Coal Mine|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1937.3202|author=Charles Burchfield|year=1918|access-date=09 December 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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White Violets and Coal Mine

White Violets and Coal Mine

Charles Burchfield

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Charles Burchfield

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