Chestnut Trees

Chestnut Trees — Charles Burchfield. 1920.

Medium: Pen and gray and black ink and gray and black wash with graphite on wove paper, lined. Dimensions: Sheet: 22.6 x 40.7 cm (8 7/8 x 16 in.).

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

After serving in World War I, Charles Burchfield found it difficult to return to his watercolor practice and temporarily experimented with other media. He made this pair of drawings using a combination of finely drawn pen lines and thick areas of wash, diluted to produce a wide variation of tones. With these materials, Burchfield could record the texture and sculptural forms of trunks—the aspects of these trees, encountered near Little Beaver Creek on the Pennsylvania border, that interested him most.

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.