Beech Tree

1919
(American, 1893–1967)
Sheet: 35.3 x 27.7 cm (13 7/8 x 10 7/8 in.)
Reproduced with permission from the Charles E. Burchfield Foundation
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location: not on view

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Did You Know?

Burchfield considered his indelible pencil drawings private works; they were shown to the public for the first time in the CMA's 1953 exhibition The Drawings of Charles E. Burchfield.

Description

Burchfield returned to his job as a clerk in the cost department at a metal fabricating plant after he was released from the armed forces in 1919. Although he continued to work primarily in watercolor in his free time, he also experimented briefly with indelible pencil—a tool containing purple dye in addition to graphite, typically used for copying documents. Burchfield likely used the pencil at work, but enjoyed the effects he could achieve while drawing with it. In works such as this sketch of a massive tree, he drew on a wet sheet of paper, allowing the pencil’s dye to faintly bleed in a way that evoked watercolor.
Beech Tree

Beech Tree

1919

Charles Burchfield

(American, 1893–1967)
America, 20th century

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