Cleveland Museum of Art

Backyards in Winter (Castoff Christmas Tree)

Charles Burchfield

Date

January 1917

Medium

watercolor, gouache, blue and orange crayons, and black wash on wove paper

Culture

America

Department

Drawings

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

In this drawing, the gray and brown tones of a row of houses are interrupted by the bright green and yellow of a discarded Christmas tree. The work was created in the same year as Church Bells Ringing , where a Christmas tree visible through a window was meant to contrast the work’s foreboding mood. This earlier image similarly suggests Burchfield’s passion for his favorite holiday, which he saw as a symbol of goodness. Christmas trees recurred throughout Burchfield's work around this time.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.