charles shirreff
early life and education charles shirreff, a deaf scottish painter, specializing in portrait miniatures, was born in either 1749 or 1750. his father, alexander shirreff, was a wealthy wine merchant of south leith in edinburgh. at the age of three or four, shirreff became deaf and mute. in 1760, his father approached thomas braidwood, owner of a school of mathematics in edinburgh, seeking an education for the boy, then ten years old, in the hope that he could be taught to write. career highlights * at the age of 18, in august 1769, shirreff left braidwood's academy to study art in london at th…
The Subject Atlas
A chart of charles shirreff's corpus mapped not by date but by subject. Spokes are what they painted; rings are when; and the threads between stars reveal the patrons and places that secretly connect them.
Spokes — Subject
Each arm of the atlas gathers works by what they depict: portraits, sacred scenes, mythologies, and the scientific studies. Click a spoke to swing that cluster to the top.
Rings — Career Period
Distance from the center marks time. The innermost ring is the earliest period; the outermost, the final years. Style matures as you move outward.
Threads — Shared Context
Coloured lines link works bound by the same patron, commission, or theme. Trace a context to watch related clusters light up across subjects.
