The Sun Through the Trees (June 30, 1917): Art, History and Details

The Sun Through the Trees (June 30, 1917) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Charles Burchfield (American, 1893–1967).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: The Sun Through the Trees
• Date: June 30, 1917
• Creator attribution: Charles Burchfield (American, 1893–1967)
• Culture: America
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: Watercolor and opaque watercolor
• Dimensions: Sheet: 55.9 x 45.7 cm (22 x 18 in.)
• Collection: DR - American 20th Century
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1930.849

A detail from the museum

This work is an early example in which Burchfield began to paint directly and expressively with watercolor rather than carefully sketching out his composition in advance.

Collection credit

Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Exhibition of Paintings by Charles Burchfield. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland School of Art, 1941.
• Trovato, Joseph S. Charles Burchfield: Catalogue of Paintings in Public and Private Collections. Utica: Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, 1970.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.