Siena
Medium
Etching in black on buff wove paper, laid down on cream wove paper (chine collé)
Dimensions
Image/plate: 11.5 × 8.2 cm (4 9/16 × 3 1/4 in.); Sheet: 15 × 11.2 cm (5 15/16 × 4 7/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
46723
Art Historical Context
Donald Shaw MacLaughlan'sSiena* (1905) is a delicate etching that evokes the timeless allure of the Italian hilltop city of Siena, renowned for its architecture and medieval piazzas. Created during the early 20th century, artists embraced printmaking to capture atmospheric European scenes, this intimate work measures just 11.5 × 8.2 cm, inviting visitors to lean in and savor its nuanced lines and subtle tones. The medium—etching in black ink on buff wove paper, laid down via chine collé onto cream wove paper—highlights MacLaughlan's mastery of intaglio techniques. Etching involves incising a ...
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...