Paul Fehér "Muse with Violin" Wrought-Iron Screen (1930)
An Art Deco screen designed by Paul Fehér for the Rose Iron Works in Cleveland in 1930, with a stylized female musician framed by geometric scrolls and stepped forms.
Design characteristics
Paul Fehér was the chief designer at Cleveland's Rose Iron Works, and this screen is one of the best-known pieces of American Art Deco metalwork. A stylized figure playing a violin is set among angular scrolls, fountains of lines and stepped borders, all within a strong rectangular frame. It shows the Deco habit of combining figurative ornament with geometry. As a reference for radiator covers or room-divider screens, it demonstrates how a pierced panel can carry an image while still letting air and light through.
Classification
- Style
- Art Deco
- Category
- Radiator Covers
- Material
- Brass
- Motifs
- Figural grille, Stepped ziggurat
- Date
- 1930
- Maker or designer
- Paul Fehér (American, born Hungary, 1898–1990), Rose Iron Works (America, Ohio, Cleveland, est. 1904)
- Recorded medium
- Steel, brass; silver and gold plating, cotton velveteen
- Dimensions
- Overall: 156.2 x 156.2 cm (61 1/2 x 61 1/2 in.)
- Evidence
- Documented historical object
- Source
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Architectural context
Stepped geometry, fluting and figured veneers. Europe and the United States · c. 1920–1940.
