id:			125613
accession number:	1947.53
share license status:	Copyrighted
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/1947.53
updated:		2025-06-20 11:29:57.114000

Kittens at Play, 1947. Waldo Peirce (American, 1884–1970), Onondaga Silk Company (American, 1933–1981). Silk: plain weave, screenprinted; overall: 67.9 x 100.3 cm (26 3/4 x 39 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Educational Purchase Fund 1947.53

title:				Kittens at Play
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			1947
creation date earliest:		1947
creation date latest:		1947
current location:		
creditline:			Educational Purchase Fund
copyright:			

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culture:	America, New York
technique:	silk: plain weave, screenprinted
department:	Textiles
collection:	Textiles
type:		Textile
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

* Waldo Peirce (American, 1884–1970)  - designer
Waldo Peirce was a prominent American painter and a well-known figure in the art world. After attending Harvard, Peirce studied art at the Art Students League in New York City, and later traveled to Europe where he studied at both the Académie Julian in Paris and with in Spain. Sometimes called "the American Renoir," Peirce once said he never worked a day in his life. He did, however, spend many hours every day for more than five decades painting still lifes, figures, and landscapes, as well as hundreds of pictures of his beloved families (he married four times and had numerous children). With a mustache and full beard and a large cigar perpetually in his mouth, he was himself the caricature of a cartoonist's notion of an artist. Peirce himself was adamant about one thing: "I'm a painter," he insisted, "not an artist.”
* Onondaga Silk Company (American, 1933–1981)  - manufacturer
Founded in 1918, by 1930 the Onondaga Silk Company had merged with Old Colony Silk Mills of New Bedford, Massachusetts. They had three mills, in Syracuse and Ogdensburg, New York, and in Easton, Pennsylvania, and offices in Chicago as well as New York City. They produced a wide range of fabrics beyond printed silks. In the late 1940s, Onondaga collaborated with the Midtown Galleries of New York to create a line of printed silks called the American Artist Print Series. Six American artists created 22 designs; the collaborators presented the series—original paintings to finished garments—to the American public in spring 1947.
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measurements: Overall: 67.9 x 100.3 cm (26 3/4 x 39 1/2 in.)
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

	title:		Designs for Fabrics from Contemporary American Artists
	opening date:   1947-02-19T05:00:00
	<i>Designs for Fabrics from Contemporary American Artists</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 19-March 7, 1947).

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

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PROVENANCE

	Purchased from the Halle Bros. Co., Cleveland.
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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	Lund, Amy and Welters, Linda. "The Onondaga Silk Company's 'American Artist Print Series' of 1947." In Welters, Linda, and Patricia A. Cunningham. 2005. <em>Twentieth-Century American Fashion</em>. Oxford, UK: Berg.
	page number: 	p.123-144
	url:		

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IMAGES