This uncommon pictorialist landscape view from the early 20th Century shows Wade Park in Cleveland, Ohio as the bucolic setting for the facade of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The museum officially opened to the public in June of 1916. Credit for the photo is believed to be a photographer named C.L. White, as written in green ink on mount verso along with Cleveland Art Museum in graphite.

Dating of this photograph is believed to be before 1928, when the museum’s Fine Arts Gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and his Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm was dedicated after the Garden Club of Cleveland first undertook fundraising efforts for the new garden in 1923. A real photo postcard view postmarked 1922 does show Wade Park lagoon sidewalk lamps in a similar pattern along the water’s edge as seen in this pictorial view by C.L. White: the finalized 1928 Fine Arts Garden displaced these lamps and replaced the more narrower sidewalks with wider paved versions.

Cleveland Museum of Art from Wikipedia (excerpt)

…The neoclassical, white Georgian Marble,Beaux-Arts building was constructed on the southern edge of Wade Park, at the cost of $1.25 million.[7] Wade Park and the museum were designed by the local architectural firm, Hubbell & Benes, with the museum planned as the park’s centerpiece.[8] The 75-acre (300,000 m2) green space takes its name from philanthropist Jeptha H. Wade, who donated part of his wooded estate to the city in 1881.[9] The museum opened its doors to the public on June 6, 1916, with Wade’s grandson, Jeptha H. Wade II, proclaiming it, ‘for the benefit of all people, forever.’ Wade, like his grandfather, had a great interest in art and served as the museum’s first vice-president; in 1920 he became its president.[10] Today, the park, with the museum still as its centerpiece, is on the National Register of Historic Places.[11]    (accessed March, 2018)

provenance: acquired by PhotoSeed in 2018 from reseller who stated it was originally purchased from a California estate 30 years ago.