id: 173962
accession number: 1930.849
share license status: Copyrighted
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1930.849
updated: 2024-03-26 02:01:48.761000
The Sun Through the Trees, June 30, 1917. Charles Burchfield (American, 1893–1967). Watercolor and opaque watercolor; sheet: 55.9 x 45.7 cm (22 x 18 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection 1930.849 Reproduced with permission from the Charles E. Burchfield Foundation
title: The Sun Through the Trees
title in original language:
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creation date: June 30, 1917
creation date earliest: 1917
creation date latest: 1917
current location:
creditline: Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection
copyright: Reproduced with permission from the Charles E. Burchfield Foundation
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culture: America, 20th century
technique: Watercolor and opaque watercolor
department: Drawings
collection: DR - American 20th Century
type: Drawing
find spot:
catalogue raisonne: Straus 240; Trovato 350
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CREATORS
* Charles Burchfield (American, 1893–1967) - artist
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
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measurements: Sheet: 55.9 x 45.7 cm (22 x 18 in.)
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Exhibition of Paintings by Charles Burchfield
opening date: 1941-04-20T05:00:00
Exhibition of Paintings by Charles Burchfield. The Cleveland School of Art.
title: Charles Burchfield: A Retrospective Exhibition of Watercolors and Oils 1916-1943
opening date: 1945-01-04T05:00:00
Charles Burchfield: A Retrospective Exhibition of Watercolors and Oils 1916-1943. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (organizer); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 4-28, 1945).
title: Charles Burchfield Retrospective Exhibition
opening date: 1956-12-28T05:00:00
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).
title: Fine Arts Exhibition
opening date: 1970-08-27T04:00:00
Fine Arts Exhibition. Ohio State Fair, Columbus, OH (August 27-September 7, 1970).
title: Cleveland Watercolors and Enamels
opening date: 1976-04-20T05:00:00
Cleveland Watercolors and Enamels. Beck Center for the Arts, Lakewood, OH (organizer) (April 20-July 26, 1976).
title: Charles Burchfield
opening date: 1979-01-01T05:00:00
Charles Burchfield. Ashtabula Arts Center.
title: Charles Burchfield Exhibition
opening date: 1979-05-30T04:00:00
Charles Burchfield Exhibition. Ashtabula Arts Center, Ashtabula, OH (organizer) (May 30-June 6, 1979).
title: Burchfield to Schreckengost: Cleveland Art of the Jazz Age
opening date: 2004-03-28T00:00:00
Burchfield to Schreckengost: Cleveland Art of the Jazz Age. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 28-July 18, 2004).
title: Charles Burchfield: The Ohio Landscapes, 1915–1920
opening date: 2018-12-22T05:00:00
Charles Burchfield: The Ohio Landscapes, 1915–1920. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 22, 2018-May 5, 2019).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* {'description': 'Cleveland Watercolors and Enamels. Civic Art Gallery, Lakewood, OH (1976).', 'opening_date': '1976-01-01T00:00:00'}
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PROVENANCE
(Frank K.M. Rehn Gallery, NY, sold to Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
date: 1930
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Exhibition of Paintings by Charles Burchfield. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland School of Art, 1941.
page number: Mentioned: no. 2
url:
Trovato, Joseph S. Charles Burchfield: Catalogue of Paintings in Public and Private Collections. Utica: Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, 1970.
page number: Mentioned: p. 64, no. 350
url:
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IMAGES