Church Bells Ringing, Rainy Winter Night, No. 2

Church Bells Ringing, Rainy Winter Night, No. 2 — Charles Burchfield. 1917.

Medium: graphite on two sheets of butt-joined wove paper. Dimensions: 32.1 x 18.6 cm (12 5/8 x 7 5/16 in.).

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

This drawing is the second study for Charles Burchfield's Church Bells Ringing, Rainy Winter Night, which he considered the most important drawing of his "golden year." Here, the artist sketched the composition in graphite, attempting to record the spire of Salem’s Baptist church (since destroyed by fire) rising up between two houses. Burchfield hoped to express his powerful childhood fear of the bell’s ominous ring—which he described as “a dull roar . . . dying slowly & with a growl.”

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.