The American painter Charles Burchfield (1893-1967) was an expressionist nature painter, although many of his fine early works are of city or small-town subjects.

Charles Burchfield was born on April 9, 1893, in Ashtabula Harbor, OH. He grew up in the nearby town of Salem, where the family had moved after the father's death. There, on the edge of a small midwestern industrial town, Burchfield discovered nature. He walked continually in the woods and marshes around the town. He had begun drawing and painting before he entered the first grade.

Burchfield graduated from high school with a scholarship award of $120 and in a year had earned enough money to enter the Cleveland School of Art (now the Cleveland Institute of Art). He studied there for four years, supporting himself by working during vacations. His chief discovery there was Asian art, particularly the work of Hiroshige and Hokusai. When he graduated...