30
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
The Sun Through the Trees is a 30 by Charles Burchfield, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a bright sun glowing through a tangle of dark tree branches. Burchfield drew this in 1917, turning sunlight into a kind of stained glass. The branches act like a frame, making the sun feel almost holy. He wanted nature to feel full of meaning, not just pretty. If you like this, look up *sfumato*—the way soft edges blur light and shadow.
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.
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.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Charles Ephraim Burchfield (April 9, 1893 – January 10, 1967) was an American painter and visionary artist, known for his passionate watercolors of nature scenes and townscapes.
See the richer artist page
