{
"data": {
"id": 132711,
"accession_number": "1955.218",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Moses in Bulrushes, Jamaica, c. 1955. Dorothy Rutka (American, 1907\u20131985). Etching and aquatint; platemark: 30.3 x 14.9 cm (11 15/16 x 5 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland, 1955.218",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Moses in Bulrushes, Jamaica",
"creation_date": "c. 1955",
"creation_date_earliest": 1926,
"creation_date_latest": 1955,
"artists_tags": [
"May Show",
"Cleveland Institute of Art (alumni)",
"female"
],
"culture": [
"America, Ohio, Cleveland"
],
"technique": "etching and aquatint",
"support_materials": [
{
"description": "wove paper",
"watermarks": []
}
],
"department": "Prints",
"collection": "PR - Etching",
"type": "Print",
"measurements": "Platemark: 30.3 x 14.9 cm (11 15/16 x 5 7/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"platemark": {
"height": 0.303,
"height_inch": 11,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.9375,
"width": 0.149,
"width_inch": 5,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.875
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": "10/10",
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Titled in pencil on bottom left beneath design: Moses in Bulrushes, Jamaica",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "Signed in pencil on bottom right beneath design: D.Rutka Kennon",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 383022,
"title": "The May Show: 37th Annual Exhibition of Works by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen",
"description": "The May Show: 37th Annual Exhibition of Works by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 4-June 12, 1955).",
"opening_date": "1955-05-04T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Studio of the artist, Cleveland, OH, sold to the Print Club of Cleveland",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1955",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Print Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1955",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1955-",
"sortorder": 3
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Rutka\u2019s prints of nature appeared on the cover of the Plain Dealer numerous times.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "The title of this work refers to a story from the Hebrew Bible in which infant Moses is hidden on the bank of the Nile River. Rutka\u2019s work focuses on the swamp plants in which Moses is hidden, \u201cbullrush\u201d being the common name for many marsh grasses. The print could have been inspired by a trip to Jamaica, or perhaps Rutka had another reason for including the location, which is otherwise unrelated to the biblical story.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80024787"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Dorothy Rutka Entry Card to 1955 May Show. Cleveland Museum of Art May Show Records, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
"page_number": null,
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMS10706/"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1955.218",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 132711,
"creators": [
{
"id": 15415,
"description": "Dorothy Rutka (American, 1907\u20131985)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Although active as an artist in Cleveland through the 1980s, Dorothy Rutka is best known for her sobering Depression-era intaglio prints depicting social ills. Born and raised in Grand Rivers, Michigan, Rutka moved to Ohio to attend the Cleveland School of Art. She graduated in 1929 with a specialization in portraiture and did additional course work in the Huntington Polytechnic Institute. She married Jack Kennon, political editor for the Cleveland News. In 1931 she toured Europe for seven months. In the early 1930s she worked as a writer and illustrator for the Bystander and in 1936 was part of the Cleveland graphic arts project of the Works Progress Administration. She joined the Cleveland Artist\u2019s Union and the American Artists\u2019 Congress. In Cleveland she showed at the Ross Widen Gallery, the 1030 Gallery, and the Art Colony (1940s\u201350s). She also exhibited frequently in the May Shows at the Cleveland Museum of Art (1929\u201366) and in exhibitions in New York, Philadelphia, Dayton, Brooklyn, and Washington, D.C. In 1960 she married Philip Porter, who was named executive editor of the Plain Dealer in 1963. They were killed by an unknown intruder in their home in Shaker Heights, Ohio.
Transformations in Cleveland Art. (CMA, 1996), p. 235
Biographical information exists in the Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1907",
"death_year": "1985",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1955-05-02T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1926,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1955",
"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": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-08-03 14:14:57.954000"
}
}