Solitude
Joshua Shaw
1818
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
54.5 × 78.7 cm (21 1/2 × 31 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
183293
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Joshua Shaw was one of the earliest landscape painters to work in America, practicing in Baltimore and Philadelphia upon emigrating from England in 1817. Shaw excelled at painting Romantic scenes of imaginary Arcadian landscapes. In Solitude, a male figure reclines in the foreground, with the contemplative pose and seminude state of a poet or philosopher inspired by the beauty of nature. In addition to idealized compositions such as this one, Shaw painted landscapes in watercolor based on observ...