Chicago, Rooftops near Allerton House
Medium
Drawing
Classification
Drawing
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Moune G.H. Webster
Accession Number
1974.85.19
Art Historical Context
**Chicago, Rooftops near Allerton House** by Donald Shaw MacLaughlan offers a captivating glimpse into early 20th-century urban Chicago. This intimate drawing captures the textured rooftops and architectural jumble near Allerton House, a notable residence in the city's evolving skyline. MacLaughlan, a Canadian-American artist active from the late 19th to early 20th century, was renowned for his precise yet atmospheric depictions of cityscapes, influenced by the etching revival and tonalist traditions pioneered by James McNeill Whistler. His works often celebrated the poetry of everyday urban v...
About the Artist
Donald Shaw MacLaughlan
Donald Shaw MacLaughlan (1876–1938) was born on November 9 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, though he is recognized as an American artist after his family relocated to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1890. There, as a teenager, he immersed himself in the Boston Public Library's collections of old master prints, studying works by Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, and eighteenth-century E...