Church Bells Ringing, Rainy Winter Night, No. 3

Church Bells Ringing, Rainy Winter Night, No. 3 — Charles Burchfield. 1917.

Medium: graphite, smudged in places on two sheets of butt-joined wove paper, lined. Dimensions: Sheet: 25.2 x 13.8 cm (9 15/16 x 5 7/16 in.); Secondary Support: 26.9 x 13.8 cm (10 9/16 x 5 7/16 in.).

Collection record: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

This drawing is a study for one of Burchfield’s Church Bells Ringing, Rainy Winter Night, painted in December 1917. The artist described the work as “an attempt to express a childhood emotion—a rainy winter night—the church bell is ringing and it terrifies me (the child)—the bell ringing motive reaches out and saturates the rainy sky—the roofs of the houses dripping with rain are influenced; the child attempts to be comforted by the thoughts of candle lights and Christmas trees, but the fear of the black, rainy night is overpowering.”

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.