Donald Shaw MacLaughlan, born - The Grimsel, - unknown - T-Shirt

This etching renders the rugged approach to the Grimsel pass in the Swiss Alps, with basalt columns and broken rock set against a billowing sky.

Visual Elements & Composition

The image is built from near-black and dark green-black tones that dominate the lower half, where the rock slabs and the dark cliff face on the right form a heavy mass. Above them, pale cream and mid grey fill the open air, and a plume of smoke rises in soft, billowing clouds. Diagonal columns of basalt cut across the centre and lead the eye up through the composition. The palette is strictly monochrome, and the only text is the date 1900 in the print.

Meaning & Symbolism

The Grimsel pass has long linked the Bernese Oberland with the Valais, so the scene stands for a historic crossing of endurance and exploration. MacLaughlan, a Canadian-American printmaker active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, worked in etching and drypoint and was shaped by Whistler and the Etching Revival. In his alpine subjects, the stark contrast between rock and sky becomes a way of expressing quiet isolation and awe before the forces that shape the earth.

On the Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee

A T-shirt puts this landscape at chest height, where it is seen at close range and moves with the wearer. The strong dark masses of the rock sit at the base of the image, while the open cream and grey areas give the mountain air room to breathe. Worn, the pass becomes a reminder of the traveller's road through high, unsettled country.