Sketch for Cleveland West Side, Hillside Houses

c. 1914–17

Sketch for Cleveland West Side, Hillside Houses, c. 1914–17. August Frederick Biehle (American, 1885–1979). Pencil on toned paper with gouache; sheet: 29.8 x 44.5 cm (11 3/4 x 17 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Frederick Biehle 2019.223 The drawing was made as preparatory to August Biehle’s most significant oil painting in his modernist period (2018.306) depicting Cleveland’s west side. Biehle sketched the steep embankment with houses and noted its location: to the left when crossing clark ave bridge from 14th street towards 55th st. Biehle was born and trained in Cleveland and studied further in Munich. While supporting himself as a commercial lithographer, he participated in a number of local exhibitions devoted to cutting-edge art at a time when there was little support. Around 1914, the artist August Biehle sketched this scene of Cleveland’s west side from the viewpoint of "14th street looking toward 55th street when crossing clark ave bridge," according to the artist.