Charles Burchfield painted Lull in Summer Rain during what is called the early period of his career from 1915 to 1921. He had completed his schooling at the Cleveland School of Art and returned home to Salem, Ohio, where he lived with his mother and worked full time as an accountant, since he could not find steady work as an illustrator. Despite his busy work schedule he completed 500 watercolors from 1916 to 1918, nearly a quarter of his lifetime production. To create them he rushed home at lunch to begin a sketch, went back to work, then finished the painting in the evening after putting in a full day at the office.

Burchfield's style and working method during this period was very much influenced by the teaching of Arthur Wesley Dow. He was exposed to Dow's extremely influential book Composition while he studied at Cleveland. In it, Dow passionately espouses his theory that design is the fundamental basis of painting - a rhythmic harmony of colored spaces. Dow also believed that there was a mystical aspect to a composition, that an artist could and should embody the very essence of being in his or her work. Burchfield was extremely receptive to Dow's technical and spiritual methodology. In the Paintings of Charles Burchfield: North by Midwest, Henry Adams writes that the artist combined his "interest in simplified, abstract design with a desire to commune with the fundamental forces of nature." 1 He also developed a strong sense of place that was brought to life by his use of a decorative visual language that used repetition, pattern, and shape to great effect.

In Lull in Summer Rain we see Burchfield's early approach to art making come to life. He chose a real place and real building, as he did in all of his work from this period, but he infused it with a sense of mystery. The alternating pattern of the trees and bright colors contrast sharply with the gray sky that is organized into a montage of almost foreboding shapes. The result is a compelling juxtaposition of mood and intensity that Burchfield would develop into his singular artistic vision throughout his career.

1 Henry Adams, ‘Charles Burchfield’s Imagination,” in Nannette V. Maciejunes and Michael D. Hall, The Paintings of Charles Burchfield: North by Midwest, exh. cat. (1997).