Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011018The Sun Through the Trees
About the Artwork
While sketching in the Ohio countryside in 1916, Burchfield began to represent the sun as a dramatic orb. This sheet is part of a group in which the artist suggested stained glass windows using trees and the sun. Here, branches reach toward the sun to form a dark, halo-like frame filled by sunlight that diffuses into an array of color. By combining landscape with religious iconography, Burchfield suggested the divine influence he saw in nature.
Provenance
1930: (Frank K.M. Rehn Gallery, NY, sold to Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
Exhibition history
Eighth Exhibition of Watercolors and Pastels. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 6-December 7, 1930). Exhibition of Paintings by Charles Burchfield. The Cleveland School of Art. Charles Burchfield: A Retrospective Exhibition of Watercolors and Oils 1916-1943. Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY (organizer); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 4-28, 1945). 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, Cleveland, OH (December 28, 1956-February 10, 1957). Fine Arts Exhibition. Ohio State Fair, Columbus, OH (August 27-September 7, 1970). Cleveland Watercolors and Enamels. Beck Center for the Arts, Lakewood, OH (organizer) (April 20-July 26, 1976). Charles Burchfield. Ashtabula Arts Center. Charles Burchfield Exhibition. Ashtabula Arts Center, Ashtabula, OH (organizer) (May 30-June 6, 1979). Burchfield to Schreckengost: Cleveland Art of the Jazz Age. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 28-July 18, 2004). Charles Burchfield: The Ohio Landscapes, 1915–1920. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 22, 2018-May 5, 2019).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Charles Burchfield (American, 1893–1967)
- Date
- June 30, 1917
- Medium
- Watercolor and opaque watercolor
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 55.9 x 45.7 cm (22 x 18 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection
- Accession no.
- 1930.849
More by Charles Burchfield in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00011018
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