The Piazza

Sir Muirhead Bone was a Scottish printmaker and watercolor artist noted for his depictions of architectural and industrial subjects, city views, and landscapes, in addition to his work as a war artist during both the First and Second World Wars. Born and raised in a Glasgow suburb, Bone first trained as an architect, but decided to pursue printmaking from 1898 onward. In 1901, Bone moved to London and had his first solo exhibition at Carfax Gallery; that year he also received his first important commission to make a set of ten etchings (of which this is one) as a pictorial record of the Glasgow International Exhibition, an ambitious world's fair which ran from May 2 to November 4, 1901.This Glasgow International Exhibition (1901) scene shows a classical colonnade at left and a building with four large round-arched windows in the background. In the open piazza (courtyard), an elegantly dressed woman promenades, while other visitors (some standing, some walking, most seated on benches beneath palm trees) are at far end of the piazza.