Walter Shirlaw
Self-Portrait (Walter Shirlaw)
1878
Walter Shirlaw (1838–1909) painted this self-portrait in Munich in 1878 during his student years at the Royal Academy. The dark tonality and rich impasto absorbed from German academic painting, combined with an American directness, document the formative European training of late 19th-century American painters. Returning to the United States, Shirlaw became the first painting instructor of New York's Art Students League. The oil-on-canvas self-portrait is part of the Art Institute of Chicago's American collection.
Exhibition Venue
Image source: Art Institute of Chicago