George Elbert Burr, born Monroe Falls, - Untitled (transfer drawing for Old Cedars and Spanish Peaks) - ca. 1922 - T-Shirt

A single wind-bent cedar grips rocky ground in the foreground while distant peaks rise pale across an open valley, all rendered in grey pencil on cream paper.

Visual Elements & Composition

The trunk twists upward from a base of exposed roots and broken rock at the lower left, and its crown breaks into dense, feathery clusters of foliage with bare, curving branches reaching outward. A second, lower tree stretches its limbs across the middle ground. Beyond them, a broad, flat valley recedes toward a range of mountains whose peaks dissolve into soft silhouettes against a light sky. Warm greys and sepia brown dominate over parchment cream, and the sheet carries a light outer border and Burr's signature in the lower left corner.

Meaning & Symbolism

The title names the old cedars and the peaks of the Spanish ranges as its subject, and the bent, weathered trunk speaks of long endurance in exposed ground. Set against the enduring mass of the land, the individual tree becomes a measure of scale. George Elbert Burr, an American-born etcher and draughtsman, worked extensively in Italy and also drew the landscapes of the American West, and this sheet belongs to that western material. As a transfer drawing, it was prepared so its image could be copied onto a printing block or plate, a step toward a finished print.

Made for the Wearer’s Chest

A tree this close to the eye works best on a shirt, where the figure of the cedar sits at the center of the body and the open valley spreads around it as the wearer moves. The quiet stillness of the scene reads clearly at arm's length, so the drawing’s fine pencil lines and the slow reach of its branches stay in view as the shirt is worn through the day.