Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

During the last years of his life, Burchfield focused on paintings that depicted the physical and metaphoric progressions that occur from one season to the next. Similar hemlock-shaped apertures in Autumn to Winter (c. 1964-66) delineate portals to a mythic North Woods, Burchfield’s imaginary place that symbolized peace and spirituality. The portals planned for Winter to Spring reference red-winged blackbirds, whose rich song Thoreau described in 1852 as “liquid, bubbling, watery, almost like a tinkling fountain, in perfect harmony with the meadow. It oozes, trickles, tinkles, bubbles from his throat—bob-y-lee-e-e, and then a shrill, fine whistle.”  They are one of the first birds heard as spring arrives.