Chicago, the Cathedral
Medium
Graphic Arts-Print
Classification
Graphic Arts-Print
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Moune G.H. Webster
Accession Number
1974.85.80
Tags
Art Historical Context
Donald Shaw MacLaughlan's *Chicago, the Cathedral* is a captivating graphic arts print that juxtaposes the soaring Holy Name Cathedral with the emerging skyscrapers of early 20th-century Chicago. As a master etcher known for his intricate urban scenes, MacLaughlan captures the city's dynamic transformation from a bustling frontier town into a vertical metropolis. The inclusion of figure groups adds a human scale, grounding the monumental architecture in everyday life and evoking the energy of Chicago's streets. This artwork reflects a pivotal era in American urban history, when skyscrapers li...
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...