Woodcut and gouache on paper

Signed and dated lower right: A. Biehle 12

Private Collection

This early work by Cleveland school artist August Biehle is a testament to his skill as a designer. In fact, art was a Biehle family tradition. The artist's father, August Sr., and his uncle were both masters and the Decorators Guild in Freiburg, Germany and immigrated to the US in 1880. August Jr. showed talent for art as soon as he could hold a pencil and was allowed to help his father as a very young boy by cutting stencils, mixing paint and practicing design patterns for his work decorating interiors. Seeking more professional art training than Cleveland was able to provide in 1903, young August set out for Europe for more study. He was accepted into the Munich Kunstgewerbeschule, one of the best art and craft schools in Europe. When he returned to Cleveland he attended evening classes at the Cleveland School of Art while performing various decorative jobs around town. In 1910, just two years before producing the present work, Biehle returned to Munich where he was exposed to the radical new artistic movement of Jugendstil and German Expressionism (specifically the Blue Rider exhibitions). These transformed his thinking about color, form and composition, leading him to take an active role in the Kokoon Arts Club in Cleveland, and produce modernist works of art.