Song from Venice no. 2
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
1974.85.64
Tags
Art Historical Context
Donald Shaw MacLaughlan's *Song from Venice no. 2* (1912) captures the timeless romance of Venice through a delicate etching, a graphic arts print that showcases the artist's mastery of line and tone. The scene evokes a moonlit canal where a gondola glides, carrying a courting couple—a man and woman serenading each other amid the city's labyrinthine waterways. MacLaughlan, a Canadian-American etcher renowned for his European travels, drew inspiration from Venice's enchanting atmosphere, blending intimate human moments with the city's iconic architecture. Created during the etching revival of ...
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...