Street Scene - Charles Burchfield
Street Scene
1940-1947
Artist: Charles E. Burchfield
American, 1893 - 1967
Overall: 39 x 53 in. (99.06 x 134.62 cm)
Watercolor on paper
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Art Association Purchase
Accession Number: 1953.57
Burchfield first came to Buffalo, New York, in 1921 to design wallpaper for a local firm. There, he painted many of the haunting townscapes that speak of loneliness, isolation, and mystery. Referring to this work, Burchfield himself said, "For me the `picture' was the grim dramatic quality of the buildings in the eerie light of an imminent storm." "Street Scene" depicts a box-gatherer pulling his cart down Genesee Street on a day in early spring. The scene derives a surreal quality from the giant trade signs of a molar and a pair of shears, and the "false-front" effect of the central structure. A master watercolorist, Burchfield used the medium to express visual equivalents of sounds and psychic sensations, often splicing together large sheets of paper to create such monumental works.