# Backyards in Winter (Castoff Christmas Tree)

- By: Charles Burchfield (American, 1893–1967)
- Date: January 1917
- Medium: watercolor, gouache, blue and orange crayons, and black wash on wove paper
- Classification: Drawing
- Dimensions: Sheet: 36.3 x 45.8 cm (14 5/16 x 18 1/16 in.)
- Culture: America
- Credit line: Anonymous gift in memory of Henry G. Keller
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/1954.571)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1954.571/1954.571_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Little Ones profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

In this drawing, the gray and brown tones of a row of houses are interrupted by the bright green and yellow of a discarded Christmas tree. The work was created in the same year as Church Bells Ringing, where a Christmas tree visible through a window was meant to contrast the work’s foreboding mood. This earlier image similarly suggests Burchfield’s passion for his favorite holiday, which he saw as a symbol of goodness.