1892 was a crucial year for Burr's life and works: hired by the very wealthy businessman Heber R. Bishop, he started the project to create the illustrated catalog of the philanthropist's collection of over a thousand jade antiquities, a collection later donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The commission allowed him to achieve some financial stability, which he used to embark on a long five-year tour of Europe with his wife Beth. It was a period of feverish activity for the artist, who visited Italy, Germany, and Great Britain, producing countless drawings, watercolors, and preparatory sketches that would become the primary source for the series of copperplate engravings of European views and panoramas he dedicated himself to upon returning home, which were exhibited in multiple shows on both the East and West Coasts.
A severe flu forced him to rest. Seeking a healthy climate, he went to Denver, Colorado, where he was captivated by the Rocky Mountains' scenery. Here was born the series of sixteen engravings—paired with sixteen watercolors—"Mountain Moods" dedicated to Estes Park, famous for the innovative composition of the views. For Burr, this was a true calling card to gain accreditation with prestigious art clubs such as the New York Society of Etchers and the Brooklyn Society of Etchers (later renamed Society of American Etchers). It was during summers spent observing the Rocky Mountains, the weathered profiles, and the wild valleys that Burr's poetics were born, the iconography that would make him famous as one of the most important American printmakers bridging the 19th and 20th centuries.
During the harsh Colorado winters, the artist's fragile health did not find a suitable climate for recovery, so he moved between Southern California, Arizona, and New Mexico, seeking milder temperatures. But the call of Colorado began to be felt in Burr's heart, who built a home and studio at 1325 Logan Street in Denver, an address that for fifteen years represented the true home of the Ohio artist. The city was vibrant, and Burr grew personally thanks to contacts with artists and personalities such as Elizabeth Spalding, Charles Partridge Adams, Anne Evans, and Henry Read.
In 1924, health conditions again forced Burr and his wife to move, bringing the couple to Phoenix, Arizona. The Grand Canyon State and its iconic landscapes were known to the printmaker, who in 1921 had already dedicated a series, later famous, renamed by experts as the "Desert Set." The scenes of the Sonoran and Mojave deserts broadened the scope of George Elbert Burr's works, enriching and completing his style. Among these, we remember the delicate "The Lana of mystery the desert", a black and white etching that confirms the printmaker's mastery not only in capturing panoramas but also in telling stories of spaces that stretch as far as the eye can see, so distinctly American, simply by inserting the element of a caravan slowly crossing the view.
George Elbert Burr spent the last fifteen years of his life in Phoenix, where he is remembered as an active community member, serving as president of the Phoenix Fine Arts Association and participating with his works in exhibitions and public events. The artist's catalog is characterized by the variety of techniques used, ranging from watercolor, oil paintings, ink drawings, and especially engravings that Burr made personally. Upon his death, his wife Beth refused to sell her husband's entire inventory for fear—well-founded—that sellers might raise the prices set by her husband. A concern that embodied a way of interpreting art and life that Burr summarized by saying: "The world has been so kind to us, I worked doing what I loved to do, without a thought, because it gave us more money than we needed." He passed away on November 17, 1939, at the age of eighty, in Phoenix and rests at Clinton County Cemetery in Cameron, Missouri. Beside him lies his beloved Beth, his lifelong companion, who died four years later.
Today George Elbert Burr is unanimously considered one of the most refined printmakers of the early 20th century. His prints are present in many prestigious collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the British Museum, the French National Print Collection, the Luxembourg Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Fogg Museum, the New York Public Library, and the Congressional Library in the capital Washington, D.C. Information about his private life is rather sparse, a goal sought by the artist himself who used to say, when asked if he intended to write a biography: "My private life should not matter to the public, it is just curiosity. My works represent my life and that is the only thing that counts." The most complete and extensive collection of Burr's works can be found at the A. Reynolds Morse Collection at the Denver Public Library. The selection includes over three hundred works by the printmaker, collected by Morse, a Denver industrialist better known for his collection of Salvador Dalí Collection works housed in the Dali Museum in Florida.