The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Beech Tree

Beech Tree

1919
(American, 1893–1967)
America, 20th century
Indelible pencil with touches of purple crayon on wove paper, lined
Sheet: 35.3 x 27.7 cm (13 7/8 x 10 7/8 in.)
Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1953.580
Reproduced with permission from the Charles E. Burchfield Foundation
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Burchfield considered his indelible pencil drawings private works; they were shown to the public for the first time in the CMA's 1953 exhibition The Drawings of Charles E. Burchfield.

Description

Burchfield returned to his job as a clerk in the cost department at a metal fabricating plant after he was released from the armed forces in 1919. Although he continued to work primarily in watercolor in his free time, he also experimented briefly with indelible pencil—a tool containing purple dye in addition to graphite, typically used for copying documents. Burchfield likely used the pencil at work, but enjoyed the effects he could achieve while drawing with it. In works such as this sketch of a massive tree, he drew on a wet sheet of paper, allowing the pencil’s dye to faintly bleed in a way that evoked watercolor.
  • 1919-1953
    Charles Burchfield [1893-1967], Buffalo, NY, sold to the Print Club of Cleveland as a gift for the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    1953-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Prasse, Leona E. The Drawings of Charles E. Burchfield. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art,1953. Mentioned: p. 8, no. 46; Reproduced: plate VII
    Trovato, Joseph S. The Nature of Charles Burchfield: A Memorial Exhibition, 1893–1967, Paints, Drawings, Prints. Exh. Cat. Utica, NY: Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, 1970. Mentioned: no. 318
    Prasse, Leona E. "An Exhibition of the Drawings of Charles E. Burchfield." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 40, no. 9 (1953) p. 203-07 25141912
  • Charles Burchfield: The Ohio Landscapes, 1915–1920. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 22, 2018-May 5, 2019).
    The Nature of Charles Burchfield: A Memorial Exhibition, 1893–1967, Paints, Drawings, Prints. Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY (organizer) (April 3-June 14, 1970).
    The Drawings of Charles E. Burchfield. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 4, 1953-January 10, 1954).
  • {{cite web|title=Beech Tree|url=false|author=Charles Burchfield|year=1919|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1953.580