Crickets in November

1917

Crickets in November, 1917. Charles Burchfield (American, 1893–1967). Pen and brown ink with black ink, colored crayons, and graphite, with watercolor on two sheets of butt-joined wove paper, lined; 21.9 x 27.6 cm (8 5/8 x 10 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Prasse Collection 1981.207 Reproduced with permission from the Charles E. Burchfield Foundation This drawing contains themes that Burchfield developed to visually convey sound—in this case, the repetitive chirping of crickets. The combination of script-like lines and repeated forms in the foreground evoked the rising and falling of the insects’ noise, and recurred throughout Burchfield’s work around this time. Burchfield had an interest in depicting personified buildings, and the windows of the house at right were meant to make it seem alive.