Burch's Store, 1916

Estate of the Artist, 1996 Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto Private Collection, Toronto

"Centenary Exhibition", Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto, 1982, no. 4 as "Burche's Store" "David Milne, Boston Corners", Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto, 1988, no. 11

Paul Caulfield, "A Path of His Own: The Story of David B. Milne", film, 1979 David Milne Jr. and David P. Silcox, "David B. Milne: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Volume 1: 1882-1928", Toronto, 1998, reproduced page 167, no. 107.28 as "Burch's Store" Katharine Lochnan (ed.), "David Milne Watercolours: Painting toward the Light", Toronto, 2005, pages 53-56

Thriving artistically yet struggling commercially, David Milne left New York City in May 1916, his home for the last thirteen years. Milne selected Boston Corners as his destination with careful deliberation, seeking out a location with ideal painting places but not too distant from the artistic community of New York. James Clarke, Milne’s close friend and patron, lived in Yonkers, also within reach by rail. With a population of less than a hundred, the village offered Milne little in the way of employment opportunities. Undeterred, Milne committed himself to painting with unwavering dedication. The move to Boston Corners proved very well-suited to Milne’s preference for isolation, offering the artist closeness to nature, plenty of time to paint, and a break from the grinding bustle of New York. Re-invigorated creatively, Milne embarked on one of the most productive and experimental periods of his career. Art historian Carol Troyen noted; “The watercolours he made over the next decade were highly experimental, pushing the medium well beyond conventional practice, and were even more original than anything he had achieved in the feverish atmosphere of modernist New York.” Boston Corners comprised of only a small number of buildings: a railway station, freight depot, church, school house, a few houses, and Charles Burch’s general store. Milne’s depiction of the store utilizes a dense composition which fills the pictorial space, with areas of white paper rhythmically dispersed throughout. Omitting a clear horizon line, Milne bisects the picture with the bold horizontal of the railway, creating visual structure. Paint has been applied opaquely, eschewing traditional watercolour technique of thin, layered washes. Milne has also experimented by radically limiting his palette to only sap green and black. Details such as the building’s outside stairway have been described with a few simple lines. “Burch’s Store” exemplifies Milne’s enthusiastic and experimental output of the period.