House on the S.E. Corner of Fourth and Vine Streets, Salem
In Burchfield's art, houses often assume anthropomorphis qualities and distinctive personalities. Rather than painting portraits of people, he created "portraits of individual houses designed to show just what sort of people lived in them." He then wrote in his journal: "A house is often more moody than nature . . . In the daytime they have an astonished look; at dusk they are evil; seem to brood over some crime . . . Each one is an individual." This view of his childhood home in Salem, Ohio, where he lived from 1898 to 1921, radiates an astonishing energy that seems to charge the sky and blackened trees outside.
Artwork Details
- Title: House on the S.E. Corner of Fourth and Vine Streets, Salem
- Artist: Charles Ephraim Burchfield (American, Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio 1893–1967 West Seneca, New York)
- Date: 1917
- Medium: Opaque watercolor and watercolor on paper mounted on board
- Dimensions: Primary support: 18 1/8 × 22 1/4 in. (46 × 56.5 cm)
Secondary support: 20 × 23 7/8 in. (50.8 × 60.7 cm) - Classification: Drawings
- Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Howard Isermann, 1997
- Object Number: 1997.323
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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Charles Ephraim Burchfield
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Charles Ephraim Burchfield
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Charles Ephraim Burchfield
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Charles Ephraim Burchfield
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Charles Ephraim Burchfield
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