Joshua Shaw

Provenance

Private Collection, circa 1941
By descent until 2012

Exhibited

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Artists, April 2, 1838, no.138

Joshua Shaw was noted for the romantic allegorical vistas he exhibited at the Royal Academy, which were favorably compared to those of John Martin and J. M. W. Turner. After immigrating to America, the artist’s reputation was established here by the publication in 1820 of Picturesque Views of America, a portfolio of prints made from his landscape sketches.

Exhibited at the First Exhibition of Philadelphia Artists in 1838, this dramatic landscape, with its theatrical luminosity, windswept classically stylized foliage, and figures imperiled by the forces of nature, expresses the sublime character of the literary themes that inspired the artist’s best works.