Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

Burchfield often went painting to an inspirational site on the west end of Zoar Valley, near Gowanda, New York which he called “the Big Woods (where I have painted most of my wood interiors).” In 1982, Whitney Director John I. H. Baur wrote, “Perhaps the aspect of spring that moved Burchfield most deeply was its first emergence in late March, its battle against the lingering grip of winter. Even a wintry snow scene like Fires of Spring in Big Woods, February, deals actually with the sense of impending spring, implied by the light that pulsates around the bare trees.”