Study of an Interior [verso]
late 19th century
![Study of an Interior [verso] by Walter Shirlaw](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/nga/thumb/study-of-an-interior-verso-nga-206614.webp)
Medium
graphite on wove paper
Dimensions
image: 13.65 × 9.84 cm (5 3/8 × 3 7/8 in.) sheet: 33.97 × 25.4 cm (13 3/8 × 10 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection
Accession Number
2015.19.3543.b
Art Historical Context
**Study of an Interior [vers]** by Walter Shirlaw visitors into the intimate world of late 19th-century artistic practice. Created as a graphite drawing on wove paper, this modest study—measuring just 13. × 9.84 cm on a larger 33.97 × 25.4 cm sheet— served as a preparatory sketch for a more finished composition. The verso location suggests resourceful studio habits, where artists repurposed both sides of a single sheet to capture fleeting ideas. Shirlaw's use of graphite on smooth wove paper allowed for subtle tonal gradations and precise lines, techniques essential for rendering interior spa...
About the Artist
Walter Shirlaw · 1838–1909
Walter Shirlaw (1838–1909) was a Scottish-born American painter and illustrator whose career bridged the genteel tradition of academic figure painting and the emerging ambitions of American art in the Gilded Age. Born in Paisley, Scotland, Shirlaw emigrated to the United States as a child and received his early artistic training in America before traveling to Munich to study at the Royal Academy —...