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    Museum collections / Art Institute of Chicago
    Toning the Bell by Walter Shirlaw
    Walter Shirlaw. Toning the Bell, 1874. The Art Institute of Chicago. Public domain (CC0).
    AT-00001346

    Public data from the Art Institute of Chicago. Learn more

    Toning the Bell

    by Walter Shirlaw

    Provenance

    Mark S. Willing (1878–1944) and Margaret Woodbridge McFadon Willing (1883–1948; also Mrs. Mark S. Willing), Chicago, by 1938; sold to the Friends of American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, 1938; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1938.

    Inscriptions

    Signed, lower left: "Walter Shirlaw / 1874"

    Exhibition history

    Chicago, World's Columbian Exposition, May 1–Oct. 31, 1893. Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Survey of American Painting, Oct. 24–Dec. 15, 1940, cat. Chicago, Lyon and Healy, Apr. 14–30, 1952. Evanston, Illinois, Scott Hall, Northwestern University, Apr. 2–9, 1954. Art Institute of Chicago, Art at the Time of the Centennial, June 19–Aug. 15, 1976, no cat. Cincinnati Art Museum, Munich & American Realism in the 19th Century, Apr. 20–May 28, 1978; Milwaukee Art Center, July 13–Aug. 27, 1978; Sacramento, E.B. Crocker Art Gallery, Oct. 28–Dec. 10, 1978. Berlin, Deutscheshistorisches Museum, VICEVERSA Geman Painters in America–American Painters in German 1813 – 1913, Sept. 19–Dec. 31, 1996.

    Publications

    Homer Saint-Gaudens, ed., Survey of American Painting, exh. cat. (Carnegie Institute, Department of Fine Arts, 1940), n.p., cat. Carolyn Kinder Carr, et al., "Revisiting the White City: American Art at the 1893 World's Fair" (University Press of New England, 1993), 317 (ill.). Judith A. Barter, et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 208–210, no. 96. Susanne Böller, "Exkurs: 'The Munich Men' – Amerikanische Maler der Münchner Schule," in Es war einmal in Amerika – 300 Jahre US-amerikanische Kunst [Once Upon a Time in America: Three Centuries of American Art], eds. Barbara Schaefer and Anita Hachmann (Cologne: Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud/Wienand Verlag, 2018), 110, fig. 11 (ill.).

    Quick Overview

    Artist
    Walter Shirlaw (American, born Scotland, 1838–1909)
    Date
    1874
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    101.6 × 76.2 cm (40 × 30 in.)
    Type
    Painting
    Classification
    painting
    Style
    Realism
    Place
    Munich
    Department
    Arts of the Americas
    Credit line
    Friends of American Art Collection
    Accession no.
    1938.1280

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    • In Mischief by Walter Shirlaw

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    • Cliffs by Walter Shirlaw

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      Museum collection · via the Metropolitan Museum of ArtAT-00017145
    • Nature Study by Walter Shirlaw

      Nature Study

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      Museum collection · via the Metropolitan Museum of ArtAT-00017146

    Open-access museum data

    This record comes from the open-access collection data that the Art Institute of Chicago publishes for unrestricted use (Creative Commons Zero). Art Trackers shows a selection of the museum's published fields. The Art Institute of Chicago is not an Art Trackers client and has not reviewed or endorsed this page; the museum's own website is the authoritative record.

    Source: The Art Institute of Chicago Open Access (CC0)

    • View this work at the Art Institute of Chicago
    • The Art Institute of Chicago: open-access terms

    Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.

    Open-access museum record · AT-00001346

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