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Solitude

A work made of oil on canvas.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of oil on canvas.

Date:

1818

Artist:

Joshua Shaw
American, born England, c. 1777–1860

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 observations of various locales along the Eastern Seaboard. Shaw was a generation older than Thomas Cole and other artists of the country’s first school of landscape painting, the Hudson River School, which emerged in the second quarter of the 19th century.

Status

On View, Gallery 169

Department

Arts of the Americas

Artist

Joshua Shaw

Title

Solitude

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1818

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

54.5 × 78.7 cm (21 1/2 × 31 in.)

Credit Line

Through prior acquisition of the Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection; the George F. Harding Collection

Reference Number

2004.489

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/183293/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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