River Wall, Oporto (c. 1925): Art, History and Details

River Wall, Oporto (c. 1925) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Orville Houghton Peets (American, 1884–1968).

The work and its context

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

Starting in 1920, Peets was commissioned by the Hispanic Society of America to travel to Portugal and create art reflecting his experience. In this image, the residents of Porto, Portugal, conduct their lives along the Douro River. The winding river wall and plunging stones that vanish into the water highlight features of the old European town. The image is framed so as not to include the massive metal arch bridges that crossed the Douro since the 1880s.

Object facts

• Title: River Wall, Oporto
• Date: c. 1925
• Creator attribution: Orville Houghton Peets (American, 1884–1968)
• Culture: America, Ohio, Cleveland
• Type: Print
• Technique: etching
• Dimensions: Plate: 23.9 x 17.9 cm (9 7/16 x 7 1/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1926.172

A detail from the museum

This print won second prize in the etching category at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s 1926 May Show.

Collection credit

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland

Further reading listed by the museum

• Orville Houghton Peets Entry Card to 1926 May Show. Cleveland Museum of Art May Show Records, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Hoffman, Jay, Dee Driscole, and Mary Clare Zahler. A Study in Regional Taste: The May Show, 1919-1975. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1977.

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.