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Backyards in Winter (Castoff Christmas Tree)
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
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.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineBackyards in Winter (Castoff Christmas Tree), January 1917. Charles Burchfield (American, 1893–1967). Watercolor, gouache, blue and orange crayons, and black wash on wove paper; sheet: 36.3 x 45.8 cm (14 5/16 x 18 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Anonymous gift in memory of Henry G. Keller, 1954.571
