Toning the Bell

Walter Shirlaw, 1874

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Look from the raised hammer to the violin under the man’s chin, then down to the little girl watching the bell.

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Shirlaw painted this scene in 1874, while he was a student at the Royal Academy in Munich. It is now his best-known work. A workman in an apron raises a hammer toward a great bell as a man beside him plays the violin. Before leaving for Europe, Shirlaw had helped found the Chicago Academy of Design, a forerunner of the Art Institute.

Oil on canvas · 101.6 × 76.2 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Realism

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Art Institute of Chicago: Toning the Bell

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Details and source

Museum title: Toning the Bell
Artist: Walter Shirlaw (American, born Scotland, 1838–1909)
Date: 1874
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 101.6 × 76.2 cm (40 × 30 in.)
Credit line: Friends of American Art Collection
Image license: CC0 1.0 · Public domain
Museum record: Art Institute of Chicago

Artist’s life 1838–1909

Realism c. 1840–late 1800s

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Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.