Burchfield, Charles (Ephraim)

(born April 9, 1893, Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio, U.S.—died Jan. 10, 1967, Gardenville, N.Y.) U.S. painter. He attended the Cleveland School of Art and, after service in World War I, worked as a wallpaper designer in Buffalo, N.Y. In the 1920s and '30s he was one of the leading painters of American life; his work was associated with Edward Hopper's in its portrayal of the loneliness and bleakness of small-town life (e.g., November Evening, 1934). In the 1940s he abandoned realism for a more personal interpretation of nature, emphasizing its mystery, movement, and colour from season to season (e.g., The Sphinx and the Milky Way, 1946).

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