Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

247 and 245 Niagara Street, Buffalo, New York

What makes this painting so unusual? It’s one of only seventeen that Burchfield created in 1928, and it’s a rare peek at childhood play. What could be more fun than taking turns pulling a sibling or friend on a sled down a city sidewalk? The warming activity is the perfect antidote to brisk, frigid air. Burchfield loved winter. He captured its beauty in two tall trees that softly fill the air with their bare branches, standing like doting parents or grandparents in front of a pair of Victorian houses, watching kids playing. Though modified today, the two Niagara Street houses still stand very close to where the original Birge Company once occupied a city corner. Now, a family-owned Colombian/Cuban restaurant, Sabores De Mi Tierra Colombiana, is in front of the house on the left.