The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Portrait

1919–20

Max Weber

(American, born Kingdom of Prussia [now Poland], 1881–1961)
America
color woodcut on Chinese paper
Image: 10.5 x 4.7 cm (4 1/8 x 1 7/8 in.); Sheet: 23.6 x 15.9 cm (9 5/16 x 6 1/4 in.)
Gift of James and Hanna Bartlett 2018.1072
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

This print was reproduced as an illustration for a short story published in a 1922 issue of the avant-garde journal Broom.

Description

The American artist Max Weber was deeply influenced by non-Western art, including African masks that he viewed at Parisian museums and Japanese prints, which he learned about as a student. Around 1919, he began to combine these interests in a series of relief prints, such as the one seen here. Weber deconstructed the human figure into component parts, emphasizing its simplicity and geometry.
  • Craig F. Starr Gallery, New York, NY
    2002-2018
    James and Hanna Bartlett, Lincoln, MA
    December 3, 2018
    the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Pilniak, Boris. “At the Doors,” Broom: An International Magazine of the Arts 3, no. 1 (August 1922) ill. p. 75
    Rubenstein, Daryl R., Max Weber, Alan Hyman, and Alan Maxwell Fern. Max Weber: A Catalogue Raisonné of His Graphic Work. 2013. p. 145-147, ill. no. 13
  • {{cite web|title=Portrait|url=false|author=Max Weber|year=1919–20|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2018.1072