Person Record
Metadata
Name |
Shaw, Robert |
Born |
1859 |
Birthplace |
Wilmington, DE |
Places of residence |
Wilmington, DE: His father worked as a coachman and laborer at the Rockwood estate (owned by the prominent Shipley family), where the Shaw family lived in the porter's lodge until 1881, when they acquired a small farm nearby on Penny Hill. - In 1884, he established a studio in downtown Wilmington at Eighth and Market Streets but later gave it up in the late 1880s to convert the ground floor of a stable at the family farm into a new studio. |
Education |
He had little formal art training but is thought to have received some instruction from Wilmington artist, Homer A. Herr. |
Notes |
- Robert Shaw was a contemporary of Howard Pyle and J.D. Chalfont. - He is best known for his Delaware scenes and did not exhibit widely outside Wilmington and seems to have had little interest in exhibiting nationally. He did, however, show in the Delaware Building at the World's Columbian Exposition and also at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1890. |
Occupation |
He thought of himself as an etcher, illustrator, and painter (in that order) and drew his inspiration from the local landscape, architectural subjects, and American history. |
Spouse |
Unmarried; spent his life with his parents and unmarried siblings. |
Children |
None |
