The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 31, 2026

A horizontally oriented print in monochrome brown depicts a central arch beneath a sun with radiating, wavy lines. Outside, a nude man on the left and woman on the right reach inward. Inside, a woman holding a book stands before classical architecture. A lower register contains five panels showing varied scenes above the text "VITA BEATA." Fine stippling and tonal line work define the detailed figures and classical composition.

Vita Beata

1908

Cornelia Paczka Wagner

(German, 1864–1930)
Germany
Algraph
Image: 47.8 x 64.4 cm (18 13/16 x 25 3/8 in.); Sheet: 56 x 74 cm (22 1/16 x 29 1/8 in.)
L. E. Holden Fund 2025.131
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Early in her career, Cornelia Paczka Wagner studied alongside the well-known German printmaker Käthe Kollwitz.

Description

Cornelia Paczka Wagner was among the few women to learn printmaking techniques in late nineteenth-century Berlin. After training in Berlin and Munich, she traveled to Rome and began to create imagery inspired by imagination and an idealized classical past. Here, a woman appears interrupted while reading in an Arcadian landscape, surrounded by a decorative border evoking femininity and the arts. Paczka Wagner created the print using algraphy, an unusual technique that replaced the stone typically used in lithography with a portable and inexpensive aluminum plate.
  • March 24, 2019
    sale, Schmidt Kunstauktionen, Dresden, Germany
    ?–?
    Private Collection, Los Angeles, CA
    ?–2025
    (C.G. Boerner, New York, NY, sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    June 9, 2025–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • {{cite web|title=Vita Beata|url=false|author=Cornelia Paczka Wagner|year=1908|access-date=31 May 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2025.131