The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Square screen with a dark blue velvet-like background in front of which silver geometric shapes run with a central image of a nude, gold person in profile, looking up as they hold a violin to their shoulder with their left hand and a bow hanging down behind them in their right. A sliver scarf drapes down from their left arm to lowered right hand and silver, stylized foliage sprouts behind them. Semi-circular geometric patterns surround them, then two flanking columns with an alternating geometric and foliage pattern.

Muse with Violin Screen

1930
designer

Paul Fehér

(American, born Hungary, 1898–1990)
maker

Rose Iron Works

(America, Ohio, Cleveland, est. 1904)
America, Ohio, Cleveland
Steel, brass; silver and gold plating, cotton velveteen
Overall: 156.2 x 156.2 cm (61 1/2 x 61 1/2 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 2020.216
© Rose Iron Works Collections
Location: 226A American Modern

Description

Since the early years of the 20th century, the Rose Iron Works, a Cleveland supplier of architectural ornament, has produced distinguished metalwork. The company’s founder, Martin Rose, was born in Austria-Hungary and studied ornamental metalsmithing in Vienna prior to immigrating to Cleveland in 1902. In the 1920s, he hired a talented young Parisian designer, Paul Fehér, to work for the firm. Fehér’s designs, culminating in this massive screen, brought a modern European sensibility to the Rose Iron Works production. With its geometric patterning, highly stylized and abstracted natural forms, and the central figure reminiscent of the celebrated jazz singer Josephine Baker, this screen reflects the classic motifs of Art Deco design.
  • 1930–2020
    (Rose Iron Works Collections, LLC, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    2020–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Duncan, Alistair. American Art Deco (New York: Abrams, 1986). Mentioned, P. 99; reproduced, P. 96
    Claire, Jean, ed. The 1920s: Age of the Metropolis, exh. cat. (Montreal, Canada: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1991). Mentioned P. 202, 532; reproduced P. 200
    "The New Industrial Arts of the World," Arts and Decoration 34 (January 1931). Reproduced P. 58
    Robinson, William H., David Steinberg, and Cleveland Museum of Art. Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art: Distributed by Ohio University Press, 1996. Reproduced: p. 162; Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 173, fig. 181; Mentioned: p. 249, no. 152
    Robinson, William H., Kathleen McKeever, "And All That Jazz", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 44 no. 05, May 2004 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 6 archive.org
    Channing, Laurence, "Before Neo: The May Show", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 45 no. 07, September 2005 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 5 archive.org
    Coffin, Sarah, Stephen Harrison, and Emily Marshall Orr. The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2017. Reproduced: cover, p. 173, fig. 216, mentioned, cat. 316, p. 359 ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org
    "Exhibitions 2017." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 57, no. 1 (January/February 2017): 10-11. Reproduced: p. 11 archive.org
    Fensom, Sarah E. "All that Jazz." Art & Antiques (Apr 2017): 80-87. Reproduced: p. 86
    Duncan, Alastair. Art Deco Sculpture. New York, New York: Thames and Hudson, 2016. Reproduced: P. 174
    Griswold, William M. “Recent Acquisitions (2013-20) at the Cleveland Museum of Art.” Burlington Magazine 163, no. 1414 (January 2021): 93-104. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 97, no. 7; mentioned: P. 93
    "Discovery through Design." American Fine Art Magazine 65 (Sept/Oct 2022): 72-73. Reproduced: P. 73
    “Rose Iron Works: From Art Nouveau to Art Deco." The Art Newspaper 33, n. 274 (2025): 86-87. Mentioned: p. 87; Reproduced: p. 86.
    "Art Deco's 100th Anniversary." Incollect Magazine 3, i. 4 (Jan/Mar 2025): 90-97. Mentioned: p. 95; Reproduced: p. 2, 90, 95
    Da Wit, Ada. "Rose Iron Works: The Cleveland Company's Journey from Art Nouveau to Art Deco.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 65, no. 2 (2025): 6-7. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 6-7 archive.org
  • Rose Iron Works and Art Deco. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 6-October 19, 2025).
    The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, NY (April 7-August 20, 2017); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 30, 2017-January 14, 2018).
    Burchfield to Schreckengost: Cleveland Art of the Jazz Age. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 28-July 18, 2004).
    Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 19-July 21, 1996).
    The 1920s: Age of the Metropolis. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Canada (June 20-November 10, 1991).
    American Art Deco. Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC (April 17-July 26, 1987); The Center for Fine Arts, Miami, FL (September 26-November 11, 1987); Joslyn Museum of Art, Omaha, NE (November 28, 1987-January 17, 1988); Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK (February 7-March 27, 1988); The Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul, MN (April 24-July 10, 1988).
    Third International Exhibition of Contemporary Industrial Art. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (October 15-November 10, 1930); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (December 1-28, 1930); The Art Institute of Chicago, IL (January 19-February 15, 1931); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 11-April 5, 1931).
    Twelfth Annual Exhibition of Work by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (April 13-June 1, 1930).
  • {{cite web|title=Muse with Violin Screen|url=false|author=Paul Fehér, Rose Iron Works|year=1930|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.216