Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

In an essay for the DC Moore Gallery in June 2010, Ralph Sessions described what we see in this painting: 

Capturing a moment of mysterious visual beauty, Burchfield’s expressive painting, Mist Phantoms at Dawn, vibrates with the energy of the rising sun. Bold yellow force lines radiate out from the sun, creating auras around trees and animating the flowering plants in the foreground. An abstracted hillside rises at left, composed of clusters of active brushstrokes in greens, yellows and golds that heighten the sense of a dramatic surge of energy. Meanwhile, the clouds of mist that blanket the center of the landscape, rising in ghostly shapes that bubble up from an insubstantial source, will soon dissipate in the early morning warmth.

So many of Burchfield's paintings conjure up memories from his youth, and this is no exception. In a letter to his friend and collector, Theodor Braasch, dated December 12, 1960, Burchfield wrote that he thought Mist Phantoms at Dawn was a “rambunctious” painting that portrayed a memory from 1915 in Salem, Ohio of brilliant yellow sunlight bursting over the hills. His phantom forms often took on the proportions of immense elm trees topped by colossal canopies outlined by bold, sweeping arches of brushstrokes. The following journal quotation from July 24, 1915—two days later than today's posting—might reveal the actual day of inspiration.

July 24, 1915 ‒ / PM – To Dutchman's [Picnic Grounds] on sketching trip – / On Painter Road I saw a crow flapping its way far to the north against a remote cloud – / I settle myself near summit of hill where I remain all afternoon — / Catbirds are numerous — their call recalls memories ‒ Redbirds & even a Peterbird!  The sun goes down behind dapples – / Make an excursion to take a bath in creek – / On return – Moon in water broken by bats skimming the water – All at once commence the whip-poor-wills – truly it was an ideal night – / Leaving moon I plunge thru a black thicket & emerge on the top of the hill in the pale afterglow. – Here on a stump I eat my lunch – Patches of dapples drift past moon [which] throws a pale rainbow on them; / Proceed thru odorous oats & hay fields – The moonlit valley sun thru screen of trees – Immense valleys moonlit causes me at times to think of Heine, because no doubt of his vivid description of a morning in the Harz Mountains. / Descend to Valley – Thru damp oats – Come upon what I think is a skunk but I can detect no odor neither does he make any show to use his weapon.  I however make a cautious detour thru a fog dripping cornfield – / Near Covered Bridge – Fog just commences to rise and presents a glorious sight. / Proceeding along the moonlit road, I made plans for an all-night walk which must end in viewing the sunrise from a high hill – Then I would go right to sleep & leave the impression forever in my mind –

—Nancy Weekly 2023