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Church Bells Ringing, Rainy Winter Night

December 1917

Charles Burchfield

(American, 1893-1967)

America, 20th century

Watercolor and gouache over graphite on wove paper

Support: Two sheets (joined) of cream(2) wove paper, laid down on cardboard

Sheet: 77.2 x 50 cm (30 3/8 x 19 11/16 in.); Secondary Support: 77.5 x 50 cm (30 1/2 x 19 11/16 in.)

Gift of Mrs. Louise M. Dunn in memory of Henry G. Keller 1949.544

Reproduced with permission from the Charles E. Burchfield Foundation

Catalogue raisonné: Straus 280; Trovato 401

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Salem's Baptist Church, a central feature of Burchfield's composition, has since been destroyed by fire.

Description

Burchfield considered this drawing among the greatest accomplishments of his “golden year.” This period followed a time of self-doubt and uncertainty: after graduating from the Cleveland School of Art, Burchfield enrolled in the National Academy of Design in New York City, but dropped out after one day, returning to Salem to work an office job. He painted inexhaustibly during his breaks and at night, depicting Salem and its environs in an increasingly abstract style.

Church Bells Ringing, Rainy Winter Night shows the spire of Salem’s Baptist church rising up between two houses. Burchfield hoped to express his powerful childhood fear of the bell’s ominous ring—which he described as “a dull roar . . . dying slowly & with a growl.” Hearing it on stormy winter nights, he huddled in his bed and calmed himself by thinking of Christmas, a practice suggested by the tree visible through a window in the drawing. Burchfield carefully refined the composition throughout the sketches seen in this gallery.

The drawing’s mood is conveyed through gray tones and the buildings’ hulking forms. Burchfield also created a complex language of symbols entitled “Conventions for Abstract Thoughts,” that recurred throughout his work and represented universal emotions. The hooked forms surrounding the tower stood for “Fear,” for example, and the shapes of the houses’ doors and windows symbolize “Morbidness” and “Evil.” Developed fully in this drawing, these symbols dominated Burchfield’s work during the remaining several years he spent in Ohio.

Artist biography

Charles Burchfield

Charles Burchfield was among the most original and poetic painters of the Cleveland modernist movement. Born in Ashtabula, he moved to Salem, Ohio, following the death of his father in 1898. After graduating from high school, he attended Cleveland School of Art, studying with William Eastman, Frederick Gottwald, Henry Keller, and Frank Wilcox. In 1914 Burchfield began attending Kokoon Klub exhibitions, and in spring 1915 he went to Brandywine to meet William Sommer. Around this time Burchfild began experimenting with the brilliant colors and simplified forms of the Berlin Heights painters. He painted his first mature works in 1915, and grad ed from the Cleveland School of Art with a degree in illustration the following spring. That summer the Cleveland School of Art sponsored his first solo exhibition, and in the fall, after attending the National Academy of Design in New York for one month, he returned to Salem. In February 1917 the Cleveland School of Art mounted his second solo exhibition. Burchfield was inducted into the army that summer. After his return in 1919 he exhibited with other Cleveland modernists at the Play House, Laukhuff’ s Book store, and other Cleveland venues. In 1921 he went on an extended sketching trip through eastern Ohio with Keller, Wilcox, and Paul Travis, exhibiting these recent paintings at the Cleveland School of Art and in the May Show at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Later that year he moved to Buffalo to work as a wallpaper designer, a position he retained until he resigned in 1929 to become a full-time painter. Over the next 30 years he exhibited extensively at museums and galleries across the country. Solo exhibitions of his paintings were held at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (1930), Pittsburgh’ s Carnegie Institute of Art (1935, 1938, 1946), and Buffalo’ s Albright-Knox Art Gallery (1944, 1955, 1963, 1967). In 1953 New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art organized a major exhibition that traveled to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Burchfield died in West Seneca, New York.
"Transformations in Cleveland Art" (CMA, 1996), p. 224

Inscriptions

Inscription

signed, at lower right, in graphite: Chas E Burchfield / Dec. 1917

Provenance

?-1949

Louise M. Dunn, Cleveland, OH, gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

1949-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Charles Burchfield: Early Watercolors 1916 to 1918. Exh. Cat. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1930. Mentioned: p. 5-7, 11; Reproduced: plate 17

Burroughs, Alan. Limners and Likenesses: Three Centuries of American Painting. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936.

Watson, Forbes. American Painting Today. Washington, D.C.: American Federation of Arts, 1939.

Exhibition of Paintings by Charles Burchfield. Exh. Cat. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland School of Art, 1941. Mentioned: no. 16

Soby, James Thrall and Dorothy C. Miller. Romantic Painting in America. Exh. Cat. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1943. Mentioned: p. 42, 102; Reproduced: p. 103

Soby, James Thrall. Contemporary Painters. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1948.

Francis, Henry S. "'Church Bells Ringing: Rainy Winter Night' by Charles E. Burchfield." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 37, no. 2 (February 1950): 23-24, repr. on cover. Mentioned: p. 23-24; Reproduced on cover

Bauer, John I. H. Charles Burchfield. Exh. Cat. New York: Whitney Museum, 1956. Mentioned: p. 16, no. 11; Reproduced: no. 11

Baur, John Ireland Howe. "Burchfield's Intimate Diaries." Art News 54 (January 1956): 27 (repr.). Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 27

Baur, John. "Fantasy and Symbolism in Charles Burchfield's Early Watercolors." Art Quarterly 19 (Spring 1956): 30-40 Mentioned: p. 36-37; Reproduced: p. 36

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 556 archive.org

The Decade of the Armory Show: New Directions in American Art, 1910 - 1920. Exh. Cat. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1963. Mentioned: no. 9; Reproduced

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 191 archive.org

Curry, Larry. Eight American Masters of Watercolor: Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Maurice B. Prendergast, John Marin, Arthur G. Dove, Charles Demuth, Charles E. Burchfield, Andrew Wyeth. Exh. Cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1968. Mentioned: p. 15, no. 84; Reproduced

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 191 archive.org

Trovato, Joseph S. Charles Burchfield: Catalogue of Paintings in Public and Private Collections. Utica: Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, 1970. Reproduced: p. 57; Mentioned: p. 70, no. 401

Hamilton, George Heard. 19th and 20th Century Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1970. Reproduced: p. 303, fig. 281

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. 77

Hamilton, George Heard. 19th and 20th Century Art: Paintings, Sculpture, Architecture. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1970. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 303

Adams, Celeste, Rita Myers, and Adele Z. Silver. An Introduction to American Art in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1972. Mentioned: p. 18-19; Reproduced: p. 19

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 237 archive.org

Melvin, Ronald McKnight. Five American Masters of Watercolor. Evanston, IL: Terra Museum of American Art, 1981. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 30

Baur, John I. H. The Inlander: Life and Work of Charles Burchfield 1893-1967. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1984. Mentioned: p. 73; Reproduced: p. 80

The Early Works of Charles E. Burchfield, 1915-1921. Exh. Cat. Columbus, Ohio: Columbus Museum of Art, 1987. Reproduced: p. 10, 48; Mentioned: p. 67, no. 53

Appelhof, Ruth Ann, Barbara Haskell, and Jeffrey Russell Hayes. The Expressionist Landscape: North American Modernist Painting, 1920-1947. Exh. Cat. Birmingham, AL: Birmingham Museum of Art, 1988. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 68

Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 146

Weekly, Nancy. Charles E. Burchfield: The Sacred Woods. Exh. Cat. Buffalo, NY: Burchfield Art Center, 1993. Mentioned: p. 41-43, 115; Reproduced: p. 41

Townsend, J. Benjamin, ed. Charles Burchfield's Journals: The Poetry of Place. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993. Mentioned: p. 18-19, 28 no. 18, 112 no. 15, 136 no. 38, 311 no. 20, 332, 410 no. 13, 437, 577; Reproduced: p. 19

Robinson, William H., and David Steinberg. Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. Referenced: cat. no. 44, p. 88-89, 104n., 56, 245, Reproduced: fig. 87

Maciejunes ,Nannette V., and Norine S. Hendricks. "Nurturing His Muse: The Archives of Charles Burchfield's Creative Life." American Art Journal 28, no. 1/2 (1997): Reproduced: p. 32; Mentioned: p. 38

Maciejunes, Nannette V., and Michael D. Hall. The Paintings of Charles Burchfield: North by Midwest. Exh. Cat. Columbus, OH: Columbus Museum of Art, 1997. Mentioned: p. 113, 160-161, 264; Reproduced: p. 161

Hunter, Sam, John M. Jacobus, and Daniel Wheeler. Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2000. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 256

Udall, Sharyn Rohlfsen. Carr, O'Keeffe, Kahlo: Places of Their Own. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 156

DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. Mentioned: p. 238-39, no. 100; Reproduced: p. 239

Gober, Robert, Cynthia Burlingham, Dave Hickey, Tullis Johnson, and Nancy Weekly. Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield. Exh. Cat. Los Angeles: Hammer Museum, 2009. Mentioned: p. 16, 18-19, 22, 26, 62 (repr.), 63, 162; Reproduced: p. 19

Duncan, Michael. "Charles Burchfield: Into the Mystic." Art in America (February 2010): 94-101. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 98

Burns, Sarah. "'Better for Haunts': Victorian Houses and the Modern Imagination." American Art 26, no. 3 (2012): 2-25. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 13

Welchans, Roger Anthony, Elizabeth McClelland, and Douglas Max Utter. Joseph McCullough: Remembrances. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Artists Archives of the Western Reserve, 2012. Reproduced: p. 11

Adams, Henry, and Lawrence Waldman. Painting in Pure Color: Modern Art in Cleveland Before the Armory Show (1908-1913). Cleveland: Cleveland Artists Foundation, 2013. Mentioned: pp. 9-10; Reproduced: p. 11

Weekly, Nancy and Audrey Lewis. Exalted Nature: The Real and Fantastic World of Charles E. Burchfield. Buffalo, NY: Burchfield Penney Art Center, SUNY Buffalo State, 2014. Reproduced: p. 30, figure 15; Mention: p. 128

Cozzolino, Robert, et. al., eds. World War I and American Art. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2016. Reproduced: p. 199, pl. 63

Exhibition history

Pioneers of Modern Art in America. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (April 9 - May 19, 1946).

Romantic Painting in America. Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (November 17, 1943 - February 6, 1944).

Exhibition of Paintings by Charles Burchfield. Cleveland School of Art, Cleveland, OH (April 20 - May 10, 1941).

Early Water Colors of Charles Burchfield. Phillips Memorial Gallery (November 5, 1933 - February 15, 1934).

8th Exhibition of Watercolors and Pastels. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 6 - December 7, 1930).

Charles Burchfield: Early Watercolors, 1916-1918. Museum of Modern Art, New York (April 11 - April 26, 1930).

New Accessions, USA, 1950. Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (July 2-September 4, 1950).

The Drawings of Charles E. Burchfield. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 4, 1953-January 10, 1954).

Charles Burchfield Retrospective Exhibition. Whitney Museum of American Art (January 11-February 26, 1956); The Baltimore Museum of Art (March 14-April 22, 1956); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (May 9-June 17, 1956); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (July 11-August 19, 1956); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (September 5-October 14, 1956); The Phillips Collection (November 4-December 11, 1956); The Cleveland Museum of Art (December 28, 1956-February 10, 1957).

The Decade of the Armory Show: New Directions in American Art, 1910-1920. Whitney Museum of American Art (February 27-April 14, 1963); Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (June 1-July 14, 1963); The Cleveland Museum of Art (August 6-September 15, 1963); Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Museum of American Art (September 30-October 30, 1963); The Art Institute of Chicago (November 15-December 29, 1963); Albright-Knox Art Gallery (January 20-February 23, 1964).

The New Tradition: Modern Americans Before 1940. Corcoran Gallery of Art (April 26-June 3, 1963).

Inaugural Exhibition. Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (September 15-October 20, 1963).

200 Years of American Painting. Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO (organizer) (co-organizer) (April 1-May 31, 1964).

Past and Present. Corcoran Gallery of Art (April 14-September 15, 1966).

Pageant of Ohio Painters. The Butler Institute of American Art (April 3-30, 1967).

Eight American Masters of Watercolor: Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Maurice B. Prendergast, John Marin, Arthur G. Dove, Charles Demuth, Charles E. Burchfield, Andrew Wyeth. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (April 23-June 16, 1968); Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum (June 28-August 18, 1968); Seattle Art Museum (September 5-October 13, 1968).

The Nature of Charles Burchfield: A Memorial Exhibition, 1893–1967, Paints, Drawings, Prints.. Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute.

The Cleveland Institute of Art: 100 Years. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 21, 1982-January 30, 1983).

America Draws. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1984-March 17, 1985).

Nocturnal Impressions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 27-May 12, 1985).

An American Visionary: Watercolors and Drawings of Charles E. Burchfield. Currier Museum of Art; Berkshire Museum; Boston Athenaeum (March 20-May 16, 1986).

The Early Works of Charles E. Burchfield 1915-1921. Columbus Museum of Art (December 13, 1987-February 7, 1988); Laguna Art Museum (March 5, 1998-April 24, 1988); Burchfield Penney Art Center (May 14-July 3, 1998).

Charles E. Burchfield: The Sacred Woods. The Drawing Center (June 12-July 30, 1993); Minnesota Museum of American Art (September 10-November 14, 1993); Burchfield Penney Art Center (December 11, 1993-February 6, 1994); Hunter Museum of American Art (April 3-May 22, 1994).

Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 19-July 21, 1996).

The Paintings of Charles Burchfield: North by Midwest. Columbus Museum of Art (March 25-May 19, 1997); Burchfield Penney Art Center (June 15-August 17, 1997); National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC (September 1, 1997-January 25, 1998).

Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).

Burchfield to Schreckengost: Cleveland Art of the Jazz Age. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 28-July 18, 2004).

Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (June 23-October 17, 2010).

Charles Burchfield: The Ohio Landscapes, 1915–1920. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 22, 2018-May 5, 2019).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Church Bells Ringing, Rainy Winter Night|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1949.544|author=Charles Burchfield|year=December 1917|access-date=02 June 2020|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Church Bells Ringing, Rainy Winter Night

Church Bells Ringing, Rainy Winter Night

Charles Burchfield

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Charles Burchfield

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