Charles E. Burchfield: Designs for Wallpaper and Fabric Boxed Notecards

A leading figure in American landscape painting, Charles E. Burchfield (1893–1967) spent his life near the southeastern shore of Lake Erie. After an early period of experimental, expressive work, he rose to prominence in the 1930s and 1940s by painting small town and city life, which some associated with the American Scene movement. Staunchly independent, he recorded understated beauty and quiet drama, as well as turbulent changes of weather in grander, inspirational paintings. With a naturalist’s insight and a mystic’s intensity, Burchfield depicted nature not merely as he observed it, but also as he emotionally and physically felt it. His personal symbols and abstract conventions formed by sinuous lines and geometric patterns evoke sound, season, movement, and mood. Best known for his watercolors, Burchfield also created intricate and stylish wallpaper and coordinating cretonne/fabric designs, four of which are reproduced in this assortment of notecards. Conveying the lifelong fascination and delight that Burchfield found in all things natural—birds, delicate flowers, the shifting perspectives of changing seasons—these designs are from the collection of the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, New York.