{
"data": {
"id": 154070,
"accession_number": "1988.187",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "In the Canal - Cleveland, 1920s. Grancel Fitz (American, 1894\u20131963). Gelatin silver print; image: 32 x 23.8 cm (12 5/8 x 9 3/8 in.); matted: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1988.187",
"current_location": null,
"title": "In the Canal - Cleveland",
"creation_date": "1920s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1920,
"creation_date_latest": 1929,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"America"
],
"technique": "gelatin silver print",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Photography",
"collection": "PH - American 1900-1950",
"type": "Photograph",
"measurements": "Image: 32 x 23.8 cm (12 5/8 x 9 3/8 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"image": {
"height": 0.32,
"height_inch": 12,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.625,
"width": 0.238,
"width_inch": 9,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.375
},
"matted": {
"height": 0.508,
"height_inch": 20,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.406,
"width_inch": 16,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Written in pencil on recto: \"GF\" monogram; in pencil on verso: \"Grancel Fitz / c/o Central Y.M.C.A. Camera Club / Phila PA / #3 / In the Canal - Cleveland / $20 / San Francisco Salon.\"; \"Z\"; \"6492\"",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 189766,
"title": "Industry and Photography: Selections from the Permanent Collection",
"description": "Industry and Photography: Selections from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1997-March 1, 1998).",
"opening_date": "1997-11-16T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Gallery One - 1G: May 16, 2016-October 17, 2016",
"opening_date": "2016-05-16T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "CMA, March 17 - May 14, 1989: \"Photographs: Recent Acquisitions,\" Gallery D.",
"opening_date": "1989-03-17T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; 11/16/97 - 3/1/98. \"Industry and Photography: Selections from the Permanent Collection.\"",
"opening_date": "1997-11-16T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Keith de Lellis, New York",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Cleveland\u2019s industrial might in the 1920s is captured here in gauzy, impressionist strokes. Fitz transforms the grime and smoke of the canal at work into a subtle tapestry of reflections and shadows. He would eventually abandon this type of pictorial photography for the more precise sensibility required for advertising photography, ultimately becoming a national leader in that field.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79940552"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 161",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1988.187",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 154070,
"creators": [
{
"id": 394,
"description": "Grancel Fitz (American, 1894\u20131963)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Grancel Fitz American, 1894-1963\r\n\r\nAs an amateur photographer, Grancel Fitz (born in Philadelphia) won numerous awards in pictorial salons before entering the new field of advertising photography in the 1920s. Photographs soon supplanted drawn illustrations as a way to sell products, and in 1929 Fitz opened a commercial studio in New York City. By the 1930s he was producing images for AT&T, Corning Glass, Chrysler Corporation, Ivory Soap, General Motors, and Westinghouse Electric. The glamorous world of make-believe created in his photographs promoted clients' products by associating them with a luxurious, desirable lifestyle.\r\n\tOne of the most successful of the first generation of advertising photographers, Fitz received eight Art Director Club Awards between 1924-45 and served three terms as president of the Society of Photographic Illustrators. After 1945, his interest shifted to big-game hunting. M.M.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1894",
"death_year": "1963",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1989-06-29T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1920,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1920s",
"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": "2026-05-01 06:51:26.278000"
}
}