Chloe (1805): Art, History and Details

Chloe (1805) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Carl Wilhelm I Kolbe (German, 1757–1835).

The work and its context

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

In this etching, Chloe, an alternate name for Demeter, Greek goddess of agriculture and fertility, reclines in a lush landscape complete with various figures, voluminous trees, a Greek temple, and a dramatic rockface. Less a narrative than a pastoral idyll, the scene evokes Romantic ideals circulating in Germany at the time that cast the relationship between humans and nature as one of direct, sometimes spiritual, experience. Carl Wilhelm Kolbe’s expert etching technique allows for both sweeping views and minute detail in one composition.

Object facts

• Title: Chloe
• Date: 1805
• Creator attribution: Carl Wilhelm I Kolbe (German, 1757–1835)
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Print
• Technique: etching on chine appliqué
• Dimensions: Image: 24.8 x 32.6 cm (9 3/4 x 12 13/16 in.); Platemark: 32.4 x 39.5 cm (12 3/4 x 15 9/16 in.); Sheet: 43.4 x 55.6 cm (17 1/16 x 21 7/8 in.)
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 2024.49

A detail from the museum

This work was printed on a chine collé (or appliqué), a sheet of translucent paper that has a slight sheen, affording a precious quality to the print.

Collection credit

Gift of Pete and Margaret Dobbins

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.