The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 29, 2025
Cléo de Mérode
c. 1903
(Italian, 1869–1940)
Sheet: 61 x 44 cm (24 x 17 5/16 in.); Platemark: 36.5 x 34.7 cm (14 3/8 x 13 11/16 in.)
Gift of Louise S. Richards 1992.36
Location: not on view
Description
Although a few printmakers experimented with printing etchings in color beginning in the 1870s, the idea did not really become popular until the 1890s. Müller represents this new interest and produced about 100 color etchings that combine densely bitten aquatint with irregularly wiped plates, epitomizing the turn-of-the-century taste for rich, painterly effects. The portrait of Cléo de Mérode (1875-1966), a fashionable dancer, is produced almost entirely in aquatint printed as broad planes and shapes of color that simplify and flatten the figure and define a shallow space. The very texture of the aquatint further emphasizes the surface and the flatness of the paper.- Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1992.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 2 (February 1993): 38–79. Mentioned: p. 73 www.jstor.org
- Inventive Impressions: 18th- and 19-Century French Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001).The Cleveland Museum of Art; 8/26/01-10/28/01. "Inventive Impressions: 18th- and 19th-Century French Prints".
- {{cite web|title=Cléo de Mérode|url=false|author=Alfredo Müller|year=c. 1903|access-date=29 April 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1992.36