Charles Burchfield - The Moth And The Thunderclap
Size Guide
Choosing the right size
Every painting on our site comes in a few standard sizes, shown as buttons above the Add to Cart button on each product page. Here's a quick way to picture how each one fits your wall.
- Small / desk & shelf scale (around 12x24 to 16x24 inch): Great above a desk, nightstand, or as part of a gallery wall grouping with other pieces.
- Medium (around 16x36 to 24x36 inch): A strong single statement piece above a sofa, bed, or dining table when paired with the furniture below it.
- Larger formats: Where offered, these work best as the focal point of a room with 8+ ft ceilings or a long wall.
As a rule of thumb, wall art should span roughly two-thirds the width of the furniture it hangs above (for example, over a 6 ft sofa, look for a piece 4-5 ft wide, or a grouped arrangement that adds up to that width).
Which format should I choose?
Poster Art Print is printed on thick satin photo paper with a 1/8" border, shipped rolled — our most affordable option, ready for you to frame yourself.
Canvas Art Print is printed on poly-cotton canvas with a 2" white border, sealed for durability, and shipped unstretched and rolled — ideal if you want to frame it yourself or have it stretched locally.
Gallery Wrapped Canvas is stretched over a solid wood frame and arrives ready to hang, no framing required — the closest thing to walking a piece straight out of a gallery.
Each product page shows the exact printed dimensions for every size we offer that painting in, along with photos of it displayed on a wall for scale.
About this painting
The Moth and the Thunderclap (1961) is a large watercolor and charcoal work in which Burchfield set a nearly life-sized cecropia moth, rendered with near-scientific realism, against an explosive backdrop of jagged, radiating lines standing in for lightning and rolling thunder. The painting recalls a vivid childhood memory of a violent storm and reflects Burchfield's longstanding practice of translating music and weather into paint; his journals describe how symphonic works, including pieces by Sibelius, could conjure storm imagery in his mind decades before he committed it to watercolor. Held today at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, a gift of longtime patron Charles Rand Penney, it stands as one of the clearest late-career statements of his synesthetic approach, fusing a calm, exacting natural-history study of the moth with an almost violent abstraction of sound and sky.
- Created: 1961
- Medium: Watercolor and charcoal on paper
- Collection: Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY
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