Hillside Houses, Cleveland West Side

1936

Hillside Houses, Cleveland West Side, 1936. August Frederick Biehle (American, 1885–1979). Lithograph; sheet: 19.1 x 29.2 cm (7 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Frederick Biehle 2019.222 This lithograph was made by August Biehle in 1936 to reprise the composition of his most significant oil painting of his modernist period (2018.306) depicting Cleveland’s west side. Biehle captured the steep embankment with houses on the top and bottom of the hill, noting its location as “from 14th street toward 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. This scene captures Cleveland’s west side in around 1914, from the viewpoint of "14th street looking toward 55th street," according to the artist.