Buffalo Art: Painting is a significant piece of Burchfield’s late-career resurgence

By Elmer Ploetz
(Image above: Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967), Autumn Leaves at Play, 1950-1959; watercolor on paper, 30 x 40 inches; Gift of Janet “Wendy” Warner Family, 2025)

The Burchfield Penney Art Center unveiled a significant new Charles E. Burchfield acquisition Wednesday night when it presented “Autumn Leaves at Play” at a media preview and special event with the donor’s family and friends, BPAC supporters and staff.

The painting was donated by the family of Janet “Wendy” Warner, who died earlier this year.

Warner, herself an artist and naturalist, was a friend of Burchfield. She acquired the painting from the Burchfield in the year after he finished it in 1959. He had started it in 1950.

You can see the painting in the image with this story, but the actual painting is a watercolor, 40 inches by 30 inches, on paper.

The painting previously was exhibited in the museum’s Charles E. Burchfield Rotunda on loan from Warner for two months in 2009, says, “Wooded ravines provided the perfect stage for the sights, sounds, and smells that Burchfield associated with the dynamics of changing seasons. … this animated painting beautifully illustrates iconic characteristics of the autumnal season.”

When he started the painting, Burchfield wrote in his journal, “I worked on a theme that came to me last month — that of a woodland stream, swollen by a heavy fall shower, carrying gay colored leaves as it tumbled down a ravine over rocks and rotting logs. In the background I put a crescent shaped opening in the woods with brilliant sunshine beyond; and had shafts of sunlight slanting down thru the trees.”

A statement from Warner’s son, Steve, and the Warner family said, “Wendy was an ardent supporter of the arts and demonstrated that conviction through both her art and the art that she and [her husband] Murray collected. Wendy recognized early on in her artist’s path that her inspiration came when sitting in a remote and peaceful spot, a trait that led her to [artist] Robert Blair and eventually to Charles Burchfield through Blair’s introduction.

“This friendship and shared appreciation of nature ultimately led to Wendy’s collection of ‘Burchfield’s Autumn Leaves at Play,’ a painting that the Warner Family has enjoyed for over six decades.

“Wendy was an avid supporter of the Burchfield Center and was involved in the creation and early days of its opening. From that connection, she was very clear in her wishes that ‘Autumn Leaves at Play’ be a permanent part of the Burchfield’s collection, where it would complement all his work and his Western New York legacy.”

The acquisition was made through the Burchfield Legacy Society, through which people can include BPAC in their estate plans.

Warner died on April 6 at age 98. She was a graduate of Buffalo Seminary and Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied sculpture and painting. She started her career in sculpture before gravitating toward painting. She spent most of her life in Western New York, living in Colden.

According to her obituary, her legacy includes over a thousand thousand paintings, drawings and sketches. Her work has been displayed in the Burchfield-Penney Art Museum, the Albright-Knox Art Museum (now Buffalo AKG), the Smithsonian Institution and in numerous other museums and juried shows. She built her own art collection with her husband, Murray, who died in 2007.

“Autumn Leaves at Play” was finished during Burchfield’s late-career resurgence after he had suffered from health issues. He died in 1967 at age 73.

Museum officials said for now, “Autumn Leaves at Play” will be transferred to the BPAC’s vaults for preservation. Most new museum acquisitions are placed in storage rather than being displayed immediately, a process designed to protect the artwork and allow curators to thoughtfully plan for future exhibitions. 

The BPAC often reframes Burchfield’s works in a style that replicates the artist’s framing techniques as closely as possible, using custom moldings. They also work to reglaze these masterworks in museum-grade glass, which helps protect works on paper from harmful UV rays using layers of special refractive coatings. 

“The Warner family took incredible care of this watercolor painting, and the pigments remain rich and vibrant,” said a BPAC spokesperson. “Our team will be fitting the piece with museum glass to ensure this remains the case for years to come.”

The museum doesn’t have a public exhibition date yet, but its curatorial team is considering how to best present it in the right contextual placement in the next few years.

The Burchfield Penney’s collection now has over 26,000 artworks, including paintings, drawings and sketches, wallpapers and prints. The Burchfield Archives, comprising journals, correspondence, exhibition documentation and other archival materials, as well as personal ephemera, likely contains at least 50,000 items.

The BPAC describes Burchfield’s best known work as “romantic, often fantastic depictions of nature, … (he) developed a unique style of watercolor painting that reflected distinctly American subjects and his profound respect for nature.”

That is certainly true of “Autumn Leaves at Play.”

Elmer Ploetz is editor-in-chief and executive director of The Buffalo Hive