{
"data": {
"id": 118792,
"accession_number": "1939.750",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "The Letter, 1934. Karl Hofer (German, 1878\u20131955). Oil on canvas; unframed: 90.7 x 70 cm (35 11/16 x 27 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection, 1939.750",
"current_location": null,
"title": "The Letter",
"creation_date": "1934",
"creation_date_earliest": 1934,
"creation_date_latest": 1934,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Germany, 20th century"
],
"technique": "oil on canvas",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Modern European Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Unframed: 90.7 x 70 cm (35 11/16 x 27 9/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"unframed": {
"height": 0.907,
"height_inch": 35,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.6875,
"width": 0.7,
"width_inch": 27,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.5625
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "signed lower right: CH34 [monogram]",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 312341,
"title": "The Silver Jubilee Exhibition",
"description": "The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).",
"opening_date": "1941-06-23T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 312176,
"title": "19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans",
"description": "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).",
"opening_date": "1943-06-22T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 681561,
"title": "Degenerate! Hitler\u2019s War on Modern Art",
"description": "Degenerate! Hitler\u2019s War on Modern Art. Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, Beachwood, OH (organizer) (October 29, 2024-April 20, 2025).",
"opening_date": "2024-10-29T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Exhibition of Work by Hofer, The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL (December 6-21, 1939), cat. no. 21.",
"opening_date": "1939-12-06T05:00:00Z"
},
{
"description": "Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings and Prints by Karl Hofer, Carnegie Art Institute Pittsburgh, PA, (January 4-28, 1940) cat. no. 16.",
"opening_date": "1940-01-04T05:00:00Z"
},
{
"description": "Expressionistic Painting, The Dudley P. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (April 1-30, 1946).",
"opening_date": "1946-04-01T05:00:00Z"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Karl Nierendorf, Berlin and New York).",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [
"87.1939",
"194.1939"
],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Hofer's art is filled with disillusionment and pessimism, expressing his dark vision of modern life through a limited range of themes that the artist repeated obsessively. Born in Karlsruhe, Hofer settled in Berlin in 1913. Condemned by the Nazis as a \"degenerate artist,\" in 1933 he was dismissed from his teaching post. In 1943 Hofer's studio and most of his work were destroyed by bombing.",
"external_resources": {
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"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q117000748",
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60514333"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1939.750",
"images": {
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"width": "690",
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"print": {
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"date_created": "2013-03-07T16:54:16",
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],
"creditline": "Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 118792,
"creators": [
{
"id": 3119,
"description": "Karl Hofer (German, 1878\u20131955)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1878",
"death_year": "1955",
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],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1939-02-08T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1934,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1934",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": true,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Girl with Letter"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-06-17 15:01:41.884000"
}
}