Porgy (1929): Art, History and Details

Porgy (1929) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Richard Beatty (American, 1899–1961).

The work and its context

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

For his skill in lithographs such as this, Richard Beatty was hired as an instructor when Karamu formed a graphic arts program around 1933. While teaching himself lithography at night, Beatty portrayed theater and cabaret scenes using dense, expressive lines from a waxy crayon. He described Porgy (1927) as his favorite print and was inspired after seeing a play by the same name at the Ohio Theatre. Elongated and slumping figures convey the narrative’s emotional climax, about a man’s attempts to rescue his love from her violent partner. The performance featured an entirely Black cast—unusual for the time—and opened to great acclaim in Cleveland in 1929.

Object facts

• Title: Porgy
• Date: 1929
• Creator attribution: Richard Beatty (American, 1899–1961)
• Culture: America, Ohio, Cleveland
• Type: Print
• Technique: lithograph
• Dimensions: Image: 25 x 18.5 cm (9 13/16 x 7 5/16 in.); Sheet: 48.2 x 31.5 cm (19 x 12 3/8 in.)
• Collection: PR - Lithograph
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1929.430

A detail from the museum

After opening on Broadway to popular acclaim in 1927, Porgy toured the United States and Europe for the next two years.

Collection credit

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland

Further reading listed by the museum

• Richard Beatty Entry Card to 1929 May Show. Cleveland Museum of Art May Show Records, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Salsbury, Britany, and Erin E. Benay. Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2025.

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.