Donald Shaw MacLaughlan — London Guaranty Building

The one in colour: a night skyline with the windows lit, in watercolour.

The document

Not an etching — a watercolour, and the most unexpected sheet of the twelve. The skyline stands against a deep blue-black sky, the towers washed in ochre, rose and green, and the lit windows put in one by one. Nothing else MacLaughlan made in Chicago looks remotely like it.

This sheet is one of three works on paper that came with the portfolio but are not part of it: the museum catalogues them as drawings, not prints.

About the artist

Donald Shaw MacLaughlan (1876–1938) was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and died in Marrakesh. He spent three decades etching the old cities of Europe — Rouen, Venice, Paris — and in Chicago he was represented by the Albert Roullier Art Galleries. In 1931, at fifty-five, he made twelve views of Chicago. The following year he took a prize at the Society of Etchers annual in New York.

The print

Printed to order and made to last. Choose Museum Matte (heavyweight matte art paper) or Fine Art Giclée (Hahnemühle cotton paper — the archival standard). The Métrica museum caption — artist, title, date and source — is printed as part of the piece, set in our house type. Free US shipping on orders over $75.

Donald Shaw MacLaughlan · London Guaranty Building, watercolour over graphite, 1931. Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1974.85.18. Public domain (CC0).