George Elbert Burr, born Monroe Falls, - Untitled (drawing for print) - ca. 1922 - T-Shirt

A single gnarled tree grips a rocky ledge under an open sky, its branches bent by wind in a graphite drawing made around 1922 by American etcher and printmaker George Elbert Burr.

Visual Elements & Composition

The main tree fills the lower left of the sheet, its thick, twisted trunk and roots gripping the stone. A second, smaller tree stands behind it, partly hidden. The crown spreads to the right in a windswept arc, and the branches move from dense, dark tangles on the left to thin, sweeping lines on the right. That shift suggests wind crossing the scene. Pale parchment sky opens across the right side, with loose cumulus clouds above a distant horizon and a few small birds in the upper right. The composition balances the heavy knotted mass of the tree against that light, open space. The signature, Burr's name, sits in the lower left.

Meaning & Symbolism

The tree holds its ground on exposed rock, so it reads as endurance and resilience, a long-standing theme in landscape drawing. Burr's careful handling of bark, branch and foliage is set against a wider view of land and sky, which is the balance that runs through his work. The sheet was catalogued as c. 1922 and is listed under the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection.

Where the Drawing Meets the Shirt

On a tee, the drawing is seen up close and at chest height, so the twisted trunk and the cloud-filled sky sit where the eye lands when you look down. The tree's dark branches on the left and open sky on the right map naturally across the front, letting the wind-bent motion of the original carry from the page onto the person wearing it.