A Sketch, But of Whom?

Leonard Cline worked at the Detroit News from late 1916 through early 1922. His wife Louise kept a scrapbook of his newspaper writings for the bulk of that time, and in some empty pages in the middle of the scrapbook I found the following drawing:

Is it Cline? I'm not sure. The receded hairline and the jutting ears look right, but his ubiquitous eyeglasses are not present, and it appears to show a mustache--the only time I know for certain that Cline wore a mustache was around 1925. Here is a photo of Cline with his son and daughter.  It looks to be from around 1918, based on the ages of his children.

Who might have been the artist?  I would suggest Arthur Marschner, who worked with Cline at the Detroit News and designed Cline's bookplate, about which I have written here. As an artist Marschner worked in a variety of forms, from oil paintings to etchings. Cline profiled Marschner in an article in the Detroit News from January 1918, headed "Spirit of Barbizon: Detroit Painter Shows Mysticism of Inness, Sobriety of Rousseau."

Leonard Cline's Bookplate

Leonard Cline's bookplate is reproduced at right.  According to Cline's daughter, it was designed by Arthur Marschner while both he and Cline worked at the Detroit News. Evidently only a small number of bookplates were made at the time, and examples survive in less than ten volumes owned by Cline, all published between 1918 and 1921.


Arthur A. Marschner (1884-1950) was, in his lifetime, a well-known Detroit artist and illustrator.  He published three illustrations in 1921 in The Liberator, a socialist magazine in which Cline published six poems in 1918 through 1921.


Here are the three pieces of Marschner's art (probably linoleum or wood cuts):

March 1921

March 1921

September 1921 

And here is Cline's poem, "Vision," from July 1921.

I found some other Marschner artwork on the web, and here are a few oil paintings.

Still with Fruit and Copper Pot

Two Landscapes