The Riviera (left Panel) 1926

Charles Burchfield made "The Riviera (left Panel)" without a known date, and with unknown materials. The first thing I notice is that the painting is both deeply conventional in subject matter and yet, weirdly unconventional in its execution. Like, the garden scene is right out of central casting, but then the handling of the paint is quite odd! The paint isn't exactly thick, but neither is it thin, it's like it's been lightly dabbed on. Look at the foliage on the left, and how the touches of pigment seem kind of clumsy and awkward, but somehow, come together to suggest form. It’s so process-oriented; the visible record of the marks that build the image. This feels like a first draft for some other painting, and perhaps that is it's charm. I'm reminded of Edward Hopper in that, it's an image of America which is at once idealized, but also alienated. You could imagine these two painters hanging out. They both love to make the ordinary strange.