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Toning the Bell
Walter Shirlaw (American, born Scotland, 1838–1909)
1874
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 101.6 × 76.2 cm (40 × 30 in.)
- Culture
- Munich
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of the Americas
- Credit line
- Friends of American Art Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Like many artists of his generation, Walter Shirlaw furthered his training in Europe, studying at the Royal Academy in Munich. German instruction focused on a dark, painterly realism and was steeped in an astute understanding of aesthetic traditions. In Toning the Bell, executed during his student years and now considered his best-known work, the artist demonstrated an accomplished Munich style, featuring noble peasants, a limited tonal palette, and strong contrasts of light and dark. Prior to his time abroad, Shirlaw had worked in Chicago and helped establish the Chicago Academy of Design, a forerunner to the Art Institute of Chicago.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
