Composition

About the Artwork

After studying art in Germany and Italy, Freundlich visited Paris for the first time in 1908, and worked alongside avant-garde writers and artists such as Apollinaire, Braque, and Picasso in the bohemian district of Montmartre. Freundlich painted his first purely abstract works in 1911 and henceforth became committed to pioneering abstraction. His work was included in groundbreaking exhibitions before and after World War I in Berlin, Munich, and Paris. Some of his most lyrically intense pastels—such as Composition—were made in 1924 following a trip to Paris when he participated in the Salon des Indépendants.

Inscriptions

signed lower left: O. F. [signed on back: Otto Freundlich / Paris 1924]

Exhibition history

Selected Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 9-April 11, 1993). Pure Color: Pastels from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 19, 2016-March 19, 2017). The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 30, 2017-January 14, 2018).

Quick Overview

Artist: Otto Freundlich (German, 1878–1943)
Date: 1924
Medium: pastel
Dimensions: Overall: 74.6 x 53.8 cm (29 3/8 x 21 3/16 in.)
Type: Drawing
Classification: Drawing
Department: Drawings
Credit line: Bequest of Lockwood Thompson
Accession no.: 1992.277

Provenance

(Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris), sold to donor, 1938

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.