Apple Tree (c. 1918): Art, History and Details

Apple Tree (c. 1918) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Frank Wilcox (American, 1887–1964).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The setting of this rustic scene is likely Ohio, potentially Berlin Heights, where Wilcox sketched during summers from 1910 to 1916. The twisting, bare branches and lack of apples suggest that the artist was focused on capturing organic lines. The small fence running along the bottom of the image provides a comparable scale, which, alongside the cropping of the upper branches, lends a sense of enormity to the trees. A lover of his home state, Wilcox may have been praising Ohio’s natural resources in this work.

Object facts

• Title: Apple Tree
• Date: c. 1918
• Creator attribution: Frank Wilcox (American, 1887–1964)
• Culture: America, Ohio, Cleveland
• Type: Print
• Technique: etching
• Dimensions: Image: 10.8 x 13.3 cm (4 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.)
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1919.241

A detail from the museum

This print was awarded first prize in the etching category at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s first May Show in 1919.

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Frank Wilcox Entry Card to 1919 May Show. Cleveland Museum of Art May Show Records, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• "Annual Exhibition of Work by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 6, no. 5 (1919): 84-82.
• "Accessions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 6, no. 6 (1919): 113-14.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.