Untitled
after 1906
Medium
Drawing
Classification
Drawing
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Carolann Smurthwaite in memory of her mother, Caroline Atherton Connell Smurthwaite
Accession Number
1983.83.109
Tags
Art Historical Context
George Elbert Burr's *Untitled* drawing, created after 1906, the stark beauty of the American Southwest, featuring majestic mountains, vast desert expanses, and the iconicuaro cactus. Burr, a pioneering etcher and draftsman (1861–1952), was drawn to these landscapes during his winters in California and Arizona, he founded artist colonies and documented the region's dramatic light and forms. This work exemplifies his fascination with the desert's ethereal atmosphere, rendered in drawing—a medium that allowed for intimate, spontaneous studies of nature's grandeur. As a master of tonalism and ea...
About the Artist
George Elbert Burr
George Elbert Burr was an American printmaker and watercolorist whose career spanned the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, earning him a reputation as one of the foremost etchers of the American West. Born in 1859 in Monroe Falls, Ohio, Burr trained as a commercial illustrator before turning his full attention to fine art. He honed his craft through diligent self-study and close obser...