Charles Burchfield

Cricket Chorus in the Arbor
1917

A vibrant, expressionistic painting featuring a stylized landscape with a wooden cabin surrounded by exaggerated, swirling patterns of green foliage. The sky is depicted in shades of yellow and orange, with abstract black birds in flight. The scene is infused with a sense of movement through the use of curving lines and spirals, particularly in the depiction of the trees and clouds. The artist's signature and the year 1917 are visible in the lower left corner.

Not on view

Date
1917

Classification
Drawings

Medium
Transparent and opaque watercolor, brush and ink, and wax crayon on paper mounted on board

Dimensions
Sheet (irregular): 22 1/16 × 17 15/16in. (56 × 45.6 cm) Overall: 22 1/8 × 18 3/16 × 1/8in. (56.2 × 46.2 × 0.3 cm)

Accession number
2009.203

Credit line
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Anne and John Straus

Rights and reproductions
Reproduced with permission from the Charles E. Burchfield Foundation and the Burchfield Penney Art Center.

API
artworks/36540

Audio

Charles Burchfield, Cricket Chorus in the Arbor, 1917

In America Is Hard to See

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Charles Burchfield, Cricket Chorus in the Arbor, 1917

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James Welling: Cricket Chorus seems to depict a hedge or a thick foliage with the sounds of crickets so it must be later in the summer when crickets come out, say in August.
Narrator: Photographer James Welling.
James Welling: It appears to be a sunset image with heavy shadows, deep shadows, and sunlit clouds in the background. Burchfield was extremely interested in representing sound in his work and for him the way to represent sound was through repetitive patterns. So this work starts out probably with a pencil drawing done on location and then the more ornate parts of the foliage, the repetitive patterns done in black watercolor or gouache, for Burchfield seemed to represent the sound patterns that the crickets are making.
Narrator: This painting is from a period that Burchfield later described as his “golden years”—an enormously productive stretch from 1916 to 18 when he was working for a machine parts company by day and making vast numbers of watercolors before and after work. He had recently finished art school and returned to his home in Salem, Ohio. In this painting and others he tried to express his childhood memories of nature. His focus on transitional moments—when evening turns to night, or summer to fall—suggests that with beauty comes loss.
Charles Burchfield, Cricket Chorus in the Arbor, 1917

In American Legends: From Calder to O'Keeffe

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Charles Burchfield, Cricket Chorus in the Arbor, 1917

0:00

James Welling: Cricket Chorus seems to depict a hedge or a thick foliage with the sounds of crickets so it must be later in the summer when crickets come out, say in August.
Narrator: Photographer James Welling.
James Welling: It appears to be a sunset image with heavy shadows, deep shadows, and sunlit clouds in the background. Burchfield was extremely interested in representing sound in his work and for him the way to represent sound was through repetitive patterns. This work starts out probably with a pencil drawing done on location and then the more ornate parts of the foliage, the repetitive patterns done in black watercolor or gouache, for Burchfield seemed to represent the sound patterns that the crickets are making.
Narrator: This painting is from a period that Burchfield later described as his “golden years”—an enormously productive stretch from 1916 to 18 when he was working for a machine parts company by day and making vast numbers of watercolors before and after work. He had recently finished art school and returned to his home in Salem, Ohio. In this painting and others he tried to express his childhood memories of nature. His focus on transitional moments—when evening turns to night, or summer to fall—suggests that with beauty comes loss.