A Canal at Venice

Donald Shaw MacLaughlan's sketch captures a Venetian canal with architectural precision and atmospheric immediacy. The composition employs quick pen strokes and selective wash to suggest depth and water movement, while gondolas and figures animate the scene. MacLaughlan, a Canadian artist born in Charlottetown, traveled extensively and developed a practiced hand at urban landscape drawing. This study demonstrates the rapid observational technique that defined early twentieth-century travel sketching—a practice that influenced commercial illustration and design before photography displaced much of this work. The sheet's notation and signature indicate a working artist's record rather than a finished exhibition piece.