id: 108544
accession number: 1926.25
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1926.25
updated: 2024-04-17 11:08:32.029000
Orpheus, c. 1903–10. Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916). Pastel on brown paper; sheet: 68.8 x 56.8 cm (27 1/16 x 22 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift from J. H. Wade 1926.25
title: Orpheus
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: c. 1903–10
creation date earliest: 1898
creation date latest: 1915
current location:
creditline: Gift from J. H. Wade
copyright:
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culture: France
technique: pastel on brown paper
department: Drawings
collection: DR - French
type: Drawing
find spot:
catalogue raisonne: Wildenstein 885
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CREATORS
* Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916) - artist
A leader of the symbolist movement in France, Odilon Redon was born in Bordeaux in 1840 and grew up in the surrounding region. During his early years he studied drawing, architecture, and the violin. A friendship with Armand Clavaud, a local botanist and philosopher, stimulated Redon's passion for romantic art and literature. In 1864, after a brief and discouraging period of instruction with Gérôme in Paris, Redon returned to Bordeaux, where he studied printmaking with Rodolphe Bresdin (1825-1885). Deploring the emphasis on rational, phenomenal experience in academic and naturalist art, Redon turned for inspiration to the imaginative paintings of Delacroix, the prints of Francisco José de Goya (1746-1828), and the poetry of Charles Baudelaire. In 1870, after military service in the Franco-Prussian War, Redon settled in Paris and produced his first Noirs. These visionary images, featuring floating eyes and severed heads born aloft on wings, reflect Redon's belief in the superiority of the imagination and fantasy, which he considered "the messenger of the unconscious." After producing his initial Noirs in charcoal, Redon discovered a method of transferring his drawings to lithography in 1876. Throughout the 1880s he continued to use charcoal, etching, and lithography as his primary media, and he produced twelve lithography albums before abandoning the genre in the late 1890s. During the 1880s Redon emerged as a leader of the symbolist reaction against impressionism. The publication in 1879 of his first lithographic album, Dans le rêve, followed by his first solo exhibition in 1881, attracted the admiration of J. K. Huysmans, who included illustrations by Redon in his novel À rebours (1884). Around the same time, Redon developed a personal and artistic relationship with poet Stéphane Mallarmé. Increasingly drawn into the public arena, Redon helped organize the Société des Artistes Indépendants in 1884. In 1886 he participated in the last impressionist exhibition and began showing with Les XX in Brussels. Redon's antinaturalist, visionary, art inspired many symbolist and Nabi artists, including Gauguin and Vuillard. Maurice Denis praised Redon as "our Mallarmé," and in 1892 critic Albert Aurier described Redon as a leader of the new "idealistic" tendency in art. After 1890 the focus of Redon's activity shifted from monochromatic drawings and prints toward exploring color in richly worked pastels. His innovations in luminous color, as seen in the pastel and oil paintings he exhibited at the Galeries Durand-Ruel in 1900 were greatly admired by Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and the Fauves. Awarded the Legion of Honor in 1903, Redon continued his leadership role in the avant-garde and in 1904 became a founding member of the Salon d'Automne. In 1913 forty of his works were selected for exhibition in the Armory Show, the most by any artist. Redon died at his home in Paris in the summer of 1916.
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measurements: Sheet: 68.8 x 56.8 cm (27 1/16 x 22 3/8 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
inscriptions:
inscription: inscribed, lower left, in black pastel: ODILON REDON
translation:
remark:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: French Art Since Eighteen Hundred
opening date: 1929-11-08T05:00:00
French Art Since Eighteen Hundred. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 8-December 8, 1929).
title: The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition
opening date: 1936-06-26T04:00:00
The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).
title: Expressionism and Related Movements
opening date: 1939-01-26T05:00:00
Expressionism and Related Movements. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 26-February 28, 1939).
title: The Silver Jubilee Exhibition
opening date: 1941-06-23T04:00:00
The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).
title: French Drawings and Watercolors from French Public and Private Collections
opening date: 1942-01-06T05:00:00
French Drawings and Watercolors from French Public and Private Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 6-February 15, 1942).
title: 19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans
opening date: 1943-06-22T04:00:00
19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 22-September 1, 1943).
title: Odilon Redon (1840-1916): Pastels and Drawings
opening date: 1951-10-22T04:00:00
Odilon Redon (1840-1916): Pastels and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 29, 1951-January 20, 1952); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (February 1-March 1, 1952).
title: Fifty Years of Modern Art
opening date: 1966-06-15T04:00:00
Fifty Years of Modern Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 15-July 31, 1966).
title: Odilon Redon: Dream Creatures and Anemones
opening date: 1984-08-21T04:00:00
Odilon Redon: Dream Creatures and Anemones. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 21-October 14, 1984).
title: Images of the Mind
opening date: 1987-07-07T04:00:00
Images of the Mind. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 7-August 30, 1987).
title: La Reverie Esthetique: Symbolist Works on Paper
opening date: 1988-03-29T05:00:00
La Reverie Esthetique: Symbolist Works on Paper. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (organizer) (March 29-May 22, 1988).
title: Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum
opening date: 1991-06-07T04:00:00
Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).
title: Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art
opening date: 2000-08-27T00:00:00
Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000).
title: Masterworks from The Phillips Collection
opening date: 2005-02-20T00:00:00
Masterworks from The Phillips Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20-May 29, 2005).
title: Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art
opening date: 2006-05-27T00:00:00
Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008).
title: Themes and Variations: Musical Drawings and Prints
opening date: 2015-01-25T00:00:00
Themes and Variations: Musical Drawings and Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 25-May 17, 2015).
title: Pure Color: Pastels from the Cleveland Museum of Art
opening date: 2016-11-19T05:00:00
Pure Color: Pastels from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 19, 2016-March 19, 2017).
title: Collecting Dreams: Odilon Redon
opening date: 2021-09-19T04:00:00
Collecting Dreams: Odilon Redon. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 19, 2021-January 23, 2022).
title: Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art
opening date: 2023-01-20T05:00:00
Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 20-April 30, 2023).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* {'description': 'International Exhibition of Modern Art. Armory of the Sixty-Ninth Infantry, New York (February 17 - March 15, 1913); Art Institute of Chicago (March 24 - April 16, 1913); Copley Society, Boston (April 23 - May 14, 1913).', 'opening_date': '1913-02-17T00:00:00'}
* {'description': 'Loan Exhibition of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (May 3 - September 15, 1921).', 'opening_date': '1921-05-03T00:00:00'}
* {'description': 'Odilon Redon. Museum of French Art, New York (April 3 - May 1, 1922).', 'opening_date': '1922-04-03T00:00:00'}
* {'description': 'Fifty Years of French Art. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 29 - November 28, 1926).', 'opening_date': '1926-10-29T00:00:00'}
* {'description': '"The Noble Buyer": John Quinn, Patron of the Avant-Garde. Washington, DC: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (1978).', 'opening_date': '1978-01-01T00:00:00'}
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PROVENANCE
purchased by Henri Matisse [1869–1954] for his father, Émile Hippolyte Matisse [1840–1910]
date: after 1903-1910
footnotes:
*
According to Walter Pach, "...among the pictures which Matisse bought for his father were some by Redon, to whose color he gave the most eager study. He would have liked to retain the works himself when settling the estate. But it was too hard to distribute among the family, and so he sent the Redons to America for sale. One of them is the magnificent Head of Orpheus now in the Cleveland Museum, which acquired it from the heirs of John Quinn, that great collector having bought the work and others from the Matisse family." See Queer Thing, Painting: Forty Years in the World of Art (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1938), p. 166.
citations:
Wilhelm Uhde [1874-1947], Paris
date: ? - by 1915
footnotes:
citations:
(Carroll Galleries, New York, sold to John Quinn, New York)
date: 1915 - 1917
footnotes:
citations:
John Quinn [1870-1924], New York, purchased from his estate by the Cleveland Museum of Art through Joseph Brummer
date: 1917-1924
footnotes:
citations:
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fun fact:
digital description:
wall description:
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Catalogue of International Exhibition of Modern Art: Association of American Painters and Sculptors : at the Armory of the Sixty-Ninth Infantry, Lexington Avenue, Twenty-Fifth and Twenty-Sixth Streets, New York, from February Fifteenth to March Fifteenth, Nineteen Hundred and Thirteen from Ten a.M. to Ten P.M. (Sundays Included). New York: Vreeland Advertising Press, 1913.
page number: Mentioned: p. 32, no. 307
url:
Loan Exhibition of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1921.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: no. 96
url:
Watson, Margaret W. "Odilon Redon, A Great French Lyricist." The Arts 2, no. 5 (1922): 273-276.
page number: Reproduced: p. 275
url:
Pach, Walter. The Masters of Modern Art. New York: B.W. Huebsch, 1924.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: no. 14
url:
John Quinn, 1870-1925: Collection of Paintings, Water Colors, Drawings & Sculpture. Huntington, NY: Pidgeon Hill, 1926.
page number: Mentioned: p. 14; Reproduced: p. 107
url:
Milliken, W. M. "Orpheus, by Odilon Redon." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 13, no. 6 (June 1926): 139-141.
page number: Mentioned: pp. 139-141.
url:
"Cleveland Museum Buys a Redon." The Art News (January 1, 1927): 1-2.
page number: Mentioned: p. 2
url:
"Cleveland's New Redon." Art Digest 1, no. 5 (January 1, 1927): 12.
page number: Mentioned: p. 12
url:
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928.
page number: Reproduced: p. 39
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1928/page/n43
Wilenski, R.H. French Painting. Boston: Hale, Cushman & Flint, 1931.
page number: Mentioned: p. 332; Reproduced: pl. 141
url:
Pach, Walter. Queer Thing, Painting: Forty Years in the World of Art. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1938.
page number: Mentioned: p. 166
url:
Holme, Bryan. Master Drawings. New York: The Studio, 1943.
page number: Reproduced: pl. 114
url:
Francis, Henry Sayles and Ary Leblond. Odilon Redon, 1840-1916: Pastels and Drawings. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1951.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: no. 17
url:
Sandström, Sven. Le monde imaginaire d'Odilon Redon. Lund: CWK Gleerup, 1955.
page number: Mentioned: p. 177; Reproduced: p. 175
url:
Rewald, John. "Quelques notes et documents sur Odilon Redon." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 48 (November 1956): 81-124.
page number: Reproduced: p. 114
url:
Berger, Klaus. "The Pastels of Odilon Redon." College Art Journal 16, no. 1 (Autumn 1956): 23-33.
page number: Mentioned: p. 32; Reproduced: p. 33
url:
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 512
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n94
Berger, Klaus. Odilon Redon: Fantasy and Colour. Trans. Michael Bullock. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965.
page number: Mentioned: p. 208, no. 365; Reproduced p. 35
url:
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page number: Reproduced: p. 181
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n205
Henning, Edward B. Fifty Years of Modern Art, 1916-1966. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page number: Mentioned: p. 7, 206; Reproduced: p. 7
url:
Hamilton, George Heard. Painting and Sculpture in Europe, 1880 to 1940. London: Penguin Books, 1967.
page number: Mentioned: p. 47; Reproduced: pl. 23B
url:
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page number: Reproduced: p. 181
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n205
Muehsam, Gerd. French Painters and Paintings from the Fourteenth Century to Post-Impressionism. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1970.
page number: Mentioned: pp. 490-491; Reproduced: p. 490
url:
Berman, Greta. "The Paradox of Odilon Redon." Konsthistorisk Tidskrift. 39, no. 1-2 (May 1970): 70-79.
page number: Reproduced: p. 78.
url:
Selz, Jean. Odilon Redon. Lugano: Uffici Press, 1971.
page number: Mentioned: p. 68; Reproduced: p. 54
url:
Cassou, Jean. Odilon Redon. Milan: Fratelli Fabbri, 1972.
page number: Reproduced: p. 47
url:
Lucie-Smith, Edward. Symbolist Art. London: Thames and Hudson, 1972.
page number: Mentioned: p. 78; Reproduced: p. 70
url:
Hobbs, Richard. Odilon Redon. London: Studio Vista, 1977.
page number: Reproduced: p. 150
url:
Christian, John. Symbolists and Decadents. London: Thames and Hudson, 1977.
page number: Mentioned: p. 14, no. 4; Reproduced: p. 15
url:
Keay, Carolyn, ed. Odilon Redon. London: Academy Editions, 1977.
page number: Reproduced: p. 19
url:
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page number: Reproduced: p. 224
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n244
Wilson, Michael. Nature and Imagination: The Work of Odilon Redon. Oxford: Phaidon, 1978.
page number: Mentioned: pp. 56, 58; Reproduced: p. 57
url:
Zilczer, Judith. "The Noble Buyer": John Quinn, Patron of the Avant-Garde. Washington, DC: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 1978.
page number: Mentioned: p. 180
url:
Canaday, John. Mainstreams of Modern Art. 2nd ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981.
page number: Mentioned: p. 370; Reproduced: p. 373
url:
Coustet, Robert. L'Univers d'Odilon Redon. Paris: Carnets de Dessins, 1984.
page number: Reproduced: p. 23
url:
Nobuo Abe. Rudon = Redon. Tōkyō: Shūeisha, 1986.
page number: Reproduced: no. 34
url:
Bacou, Roseline. Odilon Redon: Pastels. Trans. Beatrice Rehl. New York: George Braziller, 1987.
page number: Mentioned: pp. 18, 122, no. 41; Reproduced: p. 123
url:
Cleveland Museum of Art. Images of the Mind. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1987.
page number: Reproduced: front cover
url:
Zelanski, Paul and Mary Pat Fisher. The Art of Seeing. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1988.
page number: Mentioned: p. 90; Reproduced: p. 91
url:
"'La Rêverie esthétique': Symbolist Works on Paper." Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin 43, no. 1 (Summer 1988): 3-47.
page number: Mentioned: p. 34, no. 40; Reproduced: p. 45
url:
Kosinski, Dorothy M. Orpheus in Nineteenth-Century Symbolism. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1989.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 199
url:
Mindell, Arnold. Coma: Key to Awakening. Boston: Shambhala, 1989.
page number: Reproduced on cover
url:
Robinson, William H. "Puvis De Chavannes's "Summer" and the Symbolist Avant-Garde." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 1 (1991): 2-27.
page number: Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 14
url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25161310
Strickland, Carol and John Boswell. The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1992.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 125
url:
Wildenstein, Alec. Odilon Redon, catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint et dessiné. Paris: Wildenstein Institute, 1992.
page number: Mentioned: vol. II, pp. 69-70, no. 885; Reproduced: p. 70
url:
Kapos, Martha, ed. The Post-Impressionists: A Retrospective. New York: Hugh Lauter Levin, 1993.
page number: Reproduced: p. 165
url:
"Abschied vom Traum einer Heilen Welt." Art, no. 7 (July 1994): 14-17.
page number: Mentioned: p. 16; Reproduced: p. 17
url:
Druick, Douglas W., et al. Odilon Redon: Prince of Dreams, 1840-1916.Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1994.
page number: Mentioned: p. 230; Reproduced: p. 233
url:
Jarrassé, Dominique. Odilon Redon, le rêve. Paris: Herscher, 1996.
page number: Mentioned: p. 46; Reproduced: p. 47
url:
Orizet, Jean, ed. Anthologie de la poésie française: les poètes et les oeuvres, les mouvements et les écoles. Paris: Larousse, 1998.
page number: Reproduced on cover
url:
Dempsey, Amy. Styles, Schools and Movements: An Encyclopaedic Guide to Modern Art. London: Thames & Hudson, 2002.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 43
url:
Bamford, Christopher. An Endless Trace: The Passionate Pursuit of Wisdom in the West. New Paltz, NY: Codhill Press, 2003.
page number: Reproduced on cover
url:
Janson, H.W. and Anthony Janson. History of Art: The Western Tradition. Rev 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 778
url:
Stefano, Eva di. "Il colore fiorisce." Art e Dossier (2005): 33-46.
page number: Reproduced: p. 37
url:
Sturgis, Alexander, Rupert Christiansen, Lois Oliver, and Michael Wilson. Rebels and Martyrs: The Image of the Artist in the Nineteenth Century. London: National Gallery, 2006.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 25
url:
Robinson, William. "World Tour Comes to Cleveland." Cleveland Art : Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine (October 2007): 3-5.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 5
url:
Robinson, William, "World Tour Comes to Cleveland", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 47 no. 08, October 2007
page number: Mentioned & reproduced: p. 5
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2007-08/page/4
Prettejohn, Elizabeth, Peter Trippi, Robert Upstone, and Patty Wageman. J.W. Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite. Groningen: Groninger Museum, 2008.
page number: Mentioned: p. 59; Reproduced: p. 61
url:
Yamamoto, Atsuko, and Akiya Takahashi. Motto shiritai rudon: shōgai to sakuhin. Tōkyō: Tōkyōbijutsu, 2011.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 64
url:
Chevrier, Jean-François. L'Hallucination artistique de William Blake à Sigmar Polke. Paris: L'Arachneen, 2012.
page number: Reproduced.
url:
Lemonedes, Heather. "Themes and Variations: Works on Paper from the Museum's Collection with a Musical Motif." Cleveland Art : Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine (January/February 2015): 4-5.
page number: Reproduced: p. 4
url: http://clevelandart.org/magazine/cleveland-art-2015-highlights/themes-and-variations
Illiano, Roberto, ed. Music and Figurative Arts in the Twentieth Century. Turnhout: Brepols, 2016.
page number: Reproduced: Appendix, no.4
url:
Homburg, Cornelia, "Redon's Femmes aux Fleurs: Variations on a Theme." In Odilon Redon: Literature and Music, edited by Cornelia Homburg,175-95. Exh. Cat. Otterlo: Kröller-Müller Museum, 2018.
page number: Mentioned: 184, 207, no. 183; Reproduced: p. 184
url:
Henning, Edward B. The Spirit of Surrealism. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1979.
page number: Mentioned: p. 44-45, 185; Reproduced: p.44, fig. 4; colorplate II
url:
Salsbury, Britany. “Collecting Dreams: An exhibition of the museum's outstanding collection of works by Odilon Redon." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 3 (Summer 2021): 12-15.
page number: Reproduced: P. 12; Mentioned: P. 14-15.
url:
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IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1926.25/1926.25_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1926.25/1926.25_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1926.25/1926.25_full.tif