A Dash of Rain From the Sky

Skip to main content
Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College. Photograph by Jo…
A Dash of Rain From the Sky
Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College. Photograph by John Bentham. For educational purposes only.
Artist/Maker (American, 1893 - 1967)
Date1916
MediumWatercolor and pencil on paper
DimensionsSheet: 13 15/16 × 19 15/16 in. (35.4 × 50.6 cm)
Credit LineGift of D. Roger Howlett, Class of 1966
Object number2020.11.2
Not on view
DescriptionCharles Burchfield was well known for his visionary and inventive watercolor paintings detailing his deep love and respect of nature. Painted on June 17, 1916, A Dash of Rain From the Sky is indicative of his early period which featured romantic stylizations of nature and weather with a decorative quality. It was during this time that the artist was in the habit of meticulously planning and outlining the design of his pictures, and creating color notations to be filled in later. We see Burchfield doing so here in the upper left near the rainbow and the tree line, making several markings indicating color palette. By late summer 1916, Burchfield gradually abandoned this practice, and by 1917 much of his work became unplanned. The painting itself features a blue and white sky seen over top of Weaver’s (Lodge) House with a partial rainbow visible on a cloud and was completed near the artist’s home in Salem, Ohio.

Additional Details

Provenance 2020: Hamilton College (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art), by gift of D. Roger Howlett;
1987: D. Roger Howlett, by purchase at auction from Christie's New York.
Markings No markings noted.
Published References Joseph S. Trovato, CHARLES BURCHFIELD: CATALOGUE OF PAINTINGS IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS (Utica, NY: Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, 1970), p.44, not illustrated.
Signature Signed and dated "CE Burchfield / 1916" at lower right in pencil.
Inscribed "Blue grey" at upper left in pencil;
"lt grey" at upper left in pencil;
"dk Blu" at upper center in pencil;
"Pale green" at lower right center in pencil;
"lt blu gl[u]" at lower right center in pencil;
"6-17-1916" on verso at lower right in pencil.

Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. Pho…
Spring Rain
Charles E. Burchfield
Date: April 1, 1916
Medium: Watercolor and pencil on paper
Object number: 2016.1.2
Photograph by John Bentham.
Blackbirds
Charles E. Burchfield
Date: March 1916
Medium: Watercolor and graphite on paper
Object number: 2016.1.1
Photo by John Bentham.
Caged Bird
Walter Williams
Date: 1966
Medium: Color woodcut
Object number: 1984.393
Photo by John Bentham.
Fighting Cock #3
Walter Williams
Date: 1964
Medium: Color woodcut
Object number: 1984.394
Photograph by John Bentham.
Marble, Olive
Edward Ruscha
Date: 1969
Medium: Lithograph
Object number: 1982.30
Photograph by John Bentham.
Telegraph Poles, from "Camera Work"
Paul Strand
Date: 1915 (published October 1916)
Medium: Photogravure on Japan paper
Object number: 1993.6
Photo by John Bentham.
Vodou Scene
Préfète Duffaut
Date: 1950-1959
Medium: Oil on masonite
Object number: 1981.12
Photograph by John Bentham.
SP-XI
Josef Albers
Date: 1967
Medium: Color screenprint
Object number: 1992.66
Photograph by John Bentham.
Thornhead (recto); Head of Christ (verso)
Graham Sutherland
Date: 1946
Medium: Double-sided painting: ink and gouache (recto); gouache (verso) on board
Object number: 1991.217a-b
Photo by John Bentham.
The Train
Romare Bearden
Date: 1975
Medium: Photogravure and aquatint
Object number: 2016.12
The Hobby in the Kinder-Garten, from "Harper's Weekly"
The Hobby in the Kinder-Garten, from "Harper's Weekly"
Thomas Nast
Date: published October 24, 1874
Medium: Wood engraving on newsprint
Object number: 2019.13.257
© Spencer Finch. Image courtesy of the James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY. For educational purpo…
The Outer — from the Inner (Emily Dickinson's bedroom, dusk)
Spencer Finch
Date: 2018
Medium: Seven framed archival inkjet photographs
Object number: 2019.9.a-g