id: 109976 accession number: 1928.583 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1928.583 updated: 2025-05-08 15:39:25.481000 Americana Prints: Rhapsody (No. 700), 1927. John Held, Jr. (American, 1889–1958), Stehli Silks Corporation (America, Lancaster, PA, and New York, 1840–c. 1955). Silk crepe; plain weave, roller printed; overall: 47.6 x 53.3 cm (18 3/4 x 21 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the Stehli Silks Corporation, 1928.583 title: Rhapsody (No. 700) title in original language: series: Americana Prints series in original language: creation date: 1927 creation date earliest: 1927 creation date latest: 1927 current location: creditline: Gift of the Stehli Silks Corporation copyright: --- culture: America, New York technique: Silk crepe; plain weave, roller printed department: Textiles collection: Textiles type: Textile find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * John Held, Jr. (American, 1889–1958) - designed by John Held, Jr. was an editorial and advertising illustrator, as well as a print maker, who saw his work achieve its greatest popularity during the Jazz Age of the 1920s. Largely self-taught, he never graduated from high school nor did he attend art school. In 1912, at the age of 23, he left Salt Lake City for New York where he worked for an advertising company and as a magazine illustrator. By 1919, he was producing cover art for Vanity Fair, as well as cartoons for Harper’s Bazaar, The New Yorker, and Life magazine. He designed book covers for F. Scott Fitzgerald, and costumes and stage sets for Broadway productions. Held was the subject of a one-man retrospective exhibition organized by the Smithsonian Institution that traveled throughout the United States and Canada between January 1969 and January 1972. * Stehli Silks Corporation (America, Lancaster, PA, and New York, 1840–c. 1955) - manufacturer Founded in 1837 in Obfelden, Switzerland, by the Stehli family, the original cotton mill transitioned to weaving silk in 1840. By the 1890s, half of the silk produced by Stehli was being shipped to the United States; at that point moving production closer to the customer base made economic sense. Stehli opened their first US mill in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1898 and at the same time established an office in New York City, becoming one of the first American silk manufacturers. By the mid-1920s, Stehli operated five mills in three states—Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. In those two decades, Stehli’s business increased fourteen fold. A significant product line was their three Americana Prints series of 1925-1927, under art director and artist Kneeland “Ruzzie” Green. In a deliberate attempt to shift the silk industry away from traditional French design, the three series focused on imagery of contemporary American life. Fifteen well-known artists were commissioned to design 86 silk patterns. --- measurements: Overall: 47.6 x 53.3 cm (18 3/4 x 21 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: An Approach to Museum Objects opening date: 1958-03-04T05:00:00 An Approach to Museum Objects. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 3-June 30, 1958). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Duncan, Alastair. American Art Deco. New York: Abrams, 1986. page number: p. 144 url: Mendes, Valerie D. Novelty Fabrics. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1988. page number: plate 6 url: McKnight, Lola S. The Americana Prints: A Collection of Artist-Designed Textiles. Thesis submitted to the Division of Graduate Studies, SUNY, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York. December 1993. page number: p. 175 url: Boardman, Michelle, and Allentown Art Museum. All That Jazz : Printed Fashion Silks of the ’20s and ’30s. Allentown, Pa.: Allentown Art Museum, 1998. page number: cover, p. 26 url: --- IMAGES